Tag Archives: character: cress washburne

Author’s Note: Time to accelerate things a little.

The Earth Calls

“Terra?”

“I felt Stone. I know he’s alive.”

“We all know that,” Sherwin said, kneeling next to her. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she shuddered, falling against him. He frowned, not sure what was going on with her, but then nothing had been right with her since Stone died. Not that he was dead, but still…

“I felt him. Just now. Not that long ago. It’s… bad,” she whispered, shivering. He wrapped an arm around her and held her as she did, trying to calm her. He’d seen Cress go off with Moira, and he knew that his sister could use some help for a change, but he needed to get back. They both did, if what Terra was saying was true. They might have taken too long already, and none of them would forgive themselves for that.

“What is it?”

Sherwin looked up at Flint. “You seen Moira or Cress lately? Even Occie?”

“No, both the water twins were doing their best to act like fish and disappeared on me. Your sister nearly killed me because I got too close to her, and I haven’t seen her since. Limped out here to find everyone since I figured you were all down by the lake.”

“Stone…” Terra said, and Sherwin rubbed her back, trying to keep her calm. “No…”

“Are we that close? Can she really sense him?”

“Either we’re close or he’s in major pain or…” Sherwin grimaced, not finishing that statement. Terra started to sob, and he ran his fingers through her hair. If they didn’t get Stone back, they were going to lose her. That was clear. She couldn’t do this on her own.

He heard footsteps and looked up with relief to see Cress there. He knelt down next to Terra, taking hold of her hand, and she threw herself at him. He grunted, letting her hold on as that sense of calm washed over all of them.

“Hmm. Glad I missed when he did that for your sister.”

Sherwin frowned. “What?”

Flint shrugged. “If you think about it, a guy who can do that should get all the girls, right?”

“Like hell.”

“Boys.” Moira fixed them each with a pointed glare, making sure they knew not to step out of line. “How’d this start?”

Sherwin let out a breath. “She was fine, then she stopped, dropped to the ground, and she’s been like that pretty much ever since. She says she can feel Stone, but it’s bad. He must be in trouble. Not that we didn’t know that before, but… we might be running out of time here.”

Moira cursed. Cress shifted, gathering up a handful of dirt. He steadied himself and passed it to Terra, and the emotional backlash from that almost knocked him over as she focused on what the earth was telling her. The dirt fell free, and she went back to sobbing.

Cress pushed himself back up. “All I got from that was pain, so I’d say bad sums it up rather well.”

Moira bit her lip. “We need to move.”

“I’ll get her calm and then I’m going to need another hour or so in the lake. I’m sorry. I know it’s urgent, and I am not wanting to leave Stone where he is any longer than we have to—”

“We need you at full strength, or as close as we can get under the circumstances.”

“I guess that means no more lessons in control,” Enya said, giving Cress a worried look. Sherwin sighed. He wished he could help her. Hell, if any of them could do anything close to what Cress could, it would be nice.

“Not necessarily,” Flint said. “If we stick to the basics, you shouldn’t be able to do anything I can’t counter.”

“And you don’t need me, Enya. If you’re going to have control, it will be because you did it, not me, not even in a support role,” Cress said. He adjusted Terra’s position against him. “I think she’s about asleep now. Will you take her inside, Sherwin? Or Flint? Either of you would be fine…”

Sherwin moved in, needing to be useful. Terra felt tiny when he lifted her up, and he couldn’t remember when the last time she’d eaten was. They had to make sure she took better care of herself.

Enya bent down next to Cress. “You’re exhausted again.”

He gave Enya a small smile. “In pain, actually. I opened myself up to what the earth was telling her, and it hurt. Stone’s in trouble. Help me up. I have to get to Occie.”

Author’s Note: Moira and Cress have an interesting relationship, close but not at the same time. They trade off leading rather well, though.

Leadership Conference

“Team dynamics have changed a lot lately, haven’t they?”

Moira jerked, cursing him, and Cress smiled. Not many people got to do that to her, and he was one of them. The water thing, cooling down everyone’s mood, should have given him away, but he sometimes slipped past. He always enjoyed it, more than he should have. He did not know why.

“I’d ask you to keep him away from me, but you’re not in charge anymore. I am.”

Cress nodded. He would not forget that any time soon. “I know.”

Moira’s eyes went to the distance, darkening. The wind was picking up despite Cress’ presence, and he knew that. “He’s new. It makes sense that he’d push. That he would ask questions. That he needs explanations that we don’t.”

“That doesn’t make them any easier to give.” Cress shrugged. “Why should they be? We don’t discuss these things among ourselves, so why would a stranger know?”

“He wouldn’t. Shouldn’t.”

Cress knew Moira would never revisit any of those old wounds. He understood. He’d done his best to put all of his childhood behind him, to lock it and all memories of his parents away in some dark corner of his mind. All that mattered was what happened after that day. “I didn’t have much of a chance to help you back then.”

Moira shrugged. “Enya was hysterical. She’d just lost everything, and you needed to keep her calm so that it didn’t happen again.”

He’d been selfish. She knew it, she’d accused him of it in the past. Sure, he couldn’t be everywhere, but where he’d chosen to be was still selfish. “You lost Aidan.”

Moira closed her eyes. “I’m punishing Flint for that, aren’t I?”

“That’s one way to put it.”

She shook her head. “I don’t need another fire elemental around screwing with my head.”

Cress gave her a look. She was still reacting emotionally, and she’d hate hearing her own words now when she looked back over this conversation. “Aidan did not screw with your head. His loss, though, added one more to the tally, enough to persuade you that loving anyone meant losing them. That all we got out of life was a freakish ability and death.”

She pretended not to acknowledge that, turning it on him again—or trying to. “I’m not the only one who chose not to have a relationship.”

“I don’t deserve one.”

“Why would you even think that?”

“I’m the cause of all this, aren’t I? That man crossed my path, not yours, and I led you all down this one out of fear.” He dared her to deny it, and he was not surprised that she could not. He knew hidden underneath her support and her restraint was a great deal of anger, most of it directed at him for all he’d done to get them into this mess.

“There were plenty of dangerous rogues that we stopped that no one else could have.”

“That doesn’t mean that we had to give up all of our lives for it. You know that as well as I do. Why did you follow me, Moira? You never should have, not when you blamed me for making the choice I did.”

She winced. “You already said why you didn’t go back for Aidan. Don’t do this. We don’t need to drag up all of the old wounds.”

He looked away, letting out a breath. “If you can trust me, if you can look beyond my selfishness and all it cost, then dealing with Flint is nothing.”

“I can handle Flint. What I want to know now is what I’m going to do with you. Where is your head these days, Cress? Was that a one-time thing, trying to get yourself killed with that water elemental or should I be locking you up for your own safety?”

He shrugged. “I can’t say I’d change my mind about what I did then or that I wouldn’t put myself between him and the rest of you again if the situation arose. I… I admit that the possibility of him only wanting me has been weighing on me. If it would spare the rest of you, if it got Stone back to us—”

“No. He doesn’t get you. I don’t care why he wants you, he doesn’t get what he wants.”

“Do you think I was… bred to be this way, that they did the rest of it to twist me into it, all for whatever he had in mind? If it’s about the barrier or about… I don’t even know. He called me competition, but why would he want that?”

“Something he can do that takes too much out of him that he wants a proxy for? He needs to make you into someone capable of doing it so that it won’t kill him?”

“Maybe.”

“Could go back to the barrier. Could be that pulling it down would kill him.”

“Might.”

“We’re stopping him. We’ll get Stone back. We won’t give him anything he wants, no matter what he wants it for,” Moira said. She frowned. “You’re slipping. I don’t know how you coming over to comfort me ended up with me reassuring you.”

“Never said I came to comfort you.”

She rolled her eyes. “You did. You always do. You can’t stand feeling our pain.”

Cress lowered his head. “Aidan loved you. I think I told you that before, but I might not have since I know it would seem like an empty platitude after losing him. What good does love do, anyway?”

“You, of anyone, should know that.”

He snorted. “Because I can sense emotions? That doesn’t mean I understand them or ever know if what I feel is… right. No, it’s not for me to know just because I ended up with that particular ‘talent,’ though I have to wonder if it’s a curse—I think the key Occie and I found might lead to another safe-deposit box, one that has all the details of what they did, and while a part of me needs to know and knows that all of you should know—”

“You’re afraid of what we’ll learn?”

“Yes.”

Moira nodded. “Not all of the details have to come out. Only the ones that tell us what he’s after, not ones that would only… humiliate you. Or Occie. You give me your word that you’ve told me what we need to know, and I won’t even ask to look at what you find.”

“Why would you trust me with that?”

“Because, despite whatever they might have done to you, you’ve led us for twelve years. I trust that. I’ve seen you in action and know what you’re capable of and what you’re not.”

“I hope so. I’m not entirely sure I trust myself.”

Author’s Note: A bit of strategy for Enya’s practice, a bit of bonding, a bit of worry…

A Discourse Between Fire and Water

“Baby steps.”

Flint caught the look Washburne gave him, and he shrugged. That was what they were. He’d never met anyone as terrified of their element as Enya, and she was looking at a long time in getting over it, just like anyone with trauma had. Hers was different, most of them didn’t fear themselves, but she did. So she’d have to take it slow. He understood that. He wasn’t trying to push her.

Windy thought he was, but then that woman would probably disagree with any choice he made just to spite him. Funny enough, he liked that about her. He also liked how much she hated being called Windy. That made it that much enjoyable to use.

“I’m surprised you’d be willing to settle for that.”

“Hey, asking her freaked her out so bad you had almost killed yourself talking her down, so I figure baby steps are a good thing. Just like giving her space now is a good thing. She’ll clear her head, and if she thinks she can try for more, she will. She’s more of a fighter than she thinks.”

“Don’t you mean than we think?”

“Maybe that, too. Look, if you’re worried about it, I’m not interested in her that way. There’s… I get the same feeling around her as I did when my sister was alive, and it’s just too damn wrong to cross that line. You don’t have reason to worry about that. I’m not out to seduce her. I’m trying to help.”

“Never said you were trying to seduce her. I know you’re not.”

Flint grimaced. “Oh. You can… sense that?”

“Living with Sherwin is hell.”

“Point taken.” Flint put his hands in his pockets. “It’s not like it’s easy to balance any kind of relationship while you’re on the run. Probably why those perfect pairs you’ve got going on are brother and sister. Love’s way too complicated to manage while you’re dealing with elements and us ‘rogues’ and whatever the hell that water elemental is.”

“Evil.”

Flint laughed. He couldn’t argue with the other man’s assessment. “They said you crossed paths with him before, but no one bothered to say what happened when you did.”

“He froze me, babbled on about me being water, said I was one to watch… I suppose he sees me as competition, and I am, to a degree, but he’s got at least twenty years on me as far as control goes, and if that fight had gone on longer, I’d have lost.”

“Yeah. So why’d you go up against him anyway?”

“Figured he might be interested in telling me where Stone was.”

“Did he?”

“No.”

Flint frowned. “Okay, why, if you are the most powerful one and the one that lead them for twelve years—why the hell would you think that exchanging yourself for him would be worth it?”

“Terra’s half-insane without him.”

“So? She can’t do what you can do.”

“My sister’s married to him.”

“Damn.” Flint put a hand to his head. That complicated the hell out of things. Oceana was stuck trying to balance her brother while she was grieving, and she couldn’t do that forever. She’d crumble, Washburne would go with her, and there went half the team right there. “Even so… Why you for him? I don’t think that’s an equitable exchange.”

Washburne shrugged. “I don’t have to explain my reasons to you.”

“I thought you were supposed to be the calm one. Wouldn’t have figured on you being so—”

“If Enya is going to work on her control, there will have to be a point at which she does it without me around to stop her or keep her calm.”

Flint blinked. “Um, true, but I think she’s a ways off from that point, so why are you using that to change the subject? You know that was one of the clumsiest dodges I’ve ever heard because it was completely obvious.”

“She has to be able to control it on her own, without me, or she may as well have never tried. I won’t always be there.”

“Are you—” Flint shook his head, staring at the lake. “All right, where the hell did you go?”

Author’s Note: Really, it was past time for Enya to start learning control.

A Bit of Practice

“The lake is mine.”

“You can’t claim it. You’re not the only water elemental around here, you know,” Enya said, stopping to take off her shoes before she stepped into the water, letting it swirl around her ankles with a smile. She didn’t see Occie, but that didn’t mean anything. Water elementals had the kind of breath control that would make divers jealous. They could stay underwater almost as long as the fish could. “You look a lot better than you did when you got back.”

He glanced down at his chest before coming toward the shore to pick up his shirt. He pulled it on and shrugged. “I’m wet. A lot of things look better wet. Not cats, though. I don’t think it would be fair for one of us to have a cat.”

“Probably not. I might set it on fire, you could drown it, and Moira would end up knocking the poor thing out of the house with a gust of wind.”

He smiled, shaking his head. “I don’t know that I ever gave a lot of thought to pets before. When we were younger, when you would have thought we’d have wanted them, we never really did that begging for an animal thing.”

“Your parents were evil, though.”

“True.”

Enya glanced back at the house. “Flint suggested trying something simple out here by the lake. Moira told him to stop pushing me. I don’t know if he’s coming or not. He said he was right behind me, but with the way those two can fight…”

Cress waded further into the water, letting his hand turn around in an idle pattern, creating ripples across the surface. “You don’t want to know what I know about that.”

“She does like him, doesn’t she?” Enya grinned. “I knew it. That’s just their way of flirting.”

“Seems to be. Could be something else.”

“You’re the one that reads emotions.”

“Yes, and Flint’s would seem to be genuine, but what I do is not an exact science. I don’t always know what it means when I feel things from other people, and I know part of the time, I’m making it worse by trying to shut it all out. I don’t want to feel everything. That stuff is… private.” He let out a breath. “I think the worst is when I feel something from Occie. She’s my sister. I really don’t need to know that kind of thing.”

“She holds a lot of it back for you, though.”

“Too much.”

“Maybe what you need is someone else to help you when you’re down, not just her. We found a decent fire rogue. Maybe there’s a rogue water somewhere who could help balance you.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want another water elemental. I don’t want to burden my sister, but this… Well, it’ll all be over after we get Stone back. We’ll have him, we’ll destroy Aether, and we’ll go our separate ways, finally. Everyone gets to be free.”

“Even you?”

He frowned at her, and she stepped closer to him, deciding it didn’t matter if her pants got soaked or not. “Cress, you got denied a lot of things, probably more than the rest of us because you were responsible for everyone, and you should be able to have the same freedom.”

“I suppose.”

She rolled her eyes, prepared to start arguing with him when she felt something warm pass by her, skimming across the water.

“Neat trick, huh? Maggie could make it last a lot longer, and she always was proud of the whole flame defying the water thing. She thought that was something special.”

Cress stirred the water, and Enya would have sworn he was soothing it this time.

“That wasn’t what I intended to show you, though. That takes quite a bit of practice.”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t have to do this, you know. I can hear how tense you are already.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry. It was… That fire was probably the worst night of my life, and it wasn’t like I… came into this thing easy, either. We were playing in the street, Sherwin was chasing me, and I hit the car mirror—next thing I knew, everything was on fire and people were screaming and…”

Cress put his hands on her shoulders. “I think everyone was terrified when they first figured out what they could do. Everyone but Sherwin. He was always so upset about being the last to know. When the water started going everywhere, I think I was screaming the loudest, even though it wasn’t after me at all. I was back against the wall where I’d hit the mirror, and nothing got close to me, but it was still frightening. I don’t know what I would have done if my attunement had been fire.”

“You couldn’t be anything but water,” she said, leaning back against him for a moment. She looked up at him. “So… you think you’re up to being the hero that puts all the flames out again? You know it won’t be easy if it gets started.”

“You know that never stopped me before.”

She nodded. He hadn’t had even a quarter of the control he did when he grabbed hold of her that day and stopped the fire that had taken his parents’ car and the lawn. Somehow, though, he’d managed to keep it from hitting the houses and taking them all. That might have been the first time he used the rain, but she wasn’t sure.

Flint cleared his throat. “Okay, if you’re sure you want to do this and you think you’re ready for it… We’ll do something real simple. I know it might sound frightening, but it’s fine. I’m here, I should be able to handle any fires we start, and if I can’t, your friend will make sure they’re out, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“All right. I’m going to start something small, and all I want you to do is make it bigger.”

“Bigger?”

Cress shifted his hands from her shoulders to her arms. “Don’t panic yet. I’m with Flint. Making it bigger would be easier than throwing something out there and telling you to put it out.”

They both had a point. She took a deep breath, signaling for Flint to try it. She watched the small flame, trying to reach it without touching it, but all that did was give her a headache. She sighed, stepping forward to put a hand near it. The flame rose up, and she jumped backward, trying to breathe herself calm.

“Did you do that?”

Flint shook his head as he looked at the fire, making it disappear. “That was you.”

She bit her lip, and then Cress’ arms were around her, and she didn’t want to think about anything. She didn’t know if that was a victory or not, and she didn’t want to know right now. She closed her eyes. “Am I a big coward for wanting to stop there?”

“No, Enya. You surprised me. Didn’t think you’d try touching it. I’m proud of you.”

“I didn’t really do anything.”

“That’s not true.”

Author’s Note: Because Occie and Stone were always a couple, even when they thought they weren’t.

Blessing in the Rain

“You ever wish for a normal life?”

“You mean like what Enya has or like what normals have or just… quitting this?” Oceana asked, lying on the beach and trying not to pay too close attention to what was behind Stone’s words. She had a feeling that she already knew, and that wasn’t what she needed or wanted. She didn’t want to talk about it. He’d been pushing since he was maybe ten, insisting that he was in love with her when neither of them were old enough to know what that meant.

Stone stepped back from his sandcastle, admiring his elaborate work that would have put any local kids to shame if this wasn’t a private beach. “I know better than to bring up quitting with you. I know what happens if I suggest you go anywhere away from your brother.”

She closed her eyes. “I can’t let him kill himself. It seems like every time we go up against a rogue, he’s doing more, pushing harder, trying to do it all himself—”

“So he can tell us all to go and do it on his own. You know that’s what he’s been trying to work for all this time. He wants to be strong enough to give us all our freedom, not just Enya.”

“He can’t do that.”

Stone shrugged, sitting down next to her. His eyes went out to the water. “I don’t know. I think he gets closer by the day.”

“He wouldn’t know how to quit. Being a leader is all he has.”

“No, it’s all he thinks he has. It’s all he thinks he can have, but that’s not true. It’s not true for him, and it’s not true for any of the rest of us.”

“Don’t start.”

Stone put a hand on her cheek, shaking his head. “I never stopped, and you know I won’t. Cress thinks there’s no life out there besides this, not for someone like him, with that much talent and control and guilt, so he keeps trying to push things to where he can get the rest of us out of this, trying to take it all on himself. You see him do it and get scared, so scared that he’s going to kill himself doing it, and you won’t leave him because you’re the only one here that can pull him away from that edge. You won’t consider any other kind of life because you think you have to be with him. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this, and I think it’s time to prove you both wrong.”

Oceana yanked his hand away. “For the last time, Stone, I’m not running off with you or abandoning my brother.”

“I never asked you to do that. All I want is for you to love me—to admit that you do, at least. I see it when you look at me, and I feel it when we touch, but you’re so tied up in keeping your brother from his martyrdom that you won’t take a moment for yourself. You’re as bad as he is. You know no matter what your parents did, that wasn’t you and it wasn’t him. You two don’t have to be punished forever for what they did or thought should be our way of life. I don’t care if we have kids that are attuned to an element—yours or mine. I think I want kids, want to spoil little Occies and build sandcastles with them, but I don’t have to have that, either. I just want to stop the misery I see in both of you. Part of the reason he’s unhappy is because he knows what he’s keeping you from.”

She turned on her side. “We don’t get normal lives. I thought you knew that already.”

He leaned over and kissed her cheek, down her neck, his hand tracing along her side, far too close to the edge of her swimsuit for her liking. She couldn’t think when he did that. “Marry me, Occie. For the hundredth time, marry me. I’m not asking for the normal’s delusion of a house with a picket fence and two-point-five kids. I’m asking for you and me as a couple, admitting that we care about each other. I’m asking for you to let me be where you are no matter where that is. If it’s always at your brother’s side, I can live with that. He’s my best friend—Don’t tell Terra I said that—but he is. I already see him like my own brother, if I’d ever had one, and this team is a family. I want to be close to our family. I just want us, too.”

Oceana stared at him. “Stone…”

“I love you. I always have.”

“I know.”

Water splashed over them, soaking them both, and Stone sat back with a frown. She looked up as rain splattered her arms, shaking her head. “Cress, knock it off!”

“Not until you go,” he yelled back, and she cursed him even as she forced the water off the shore. Her towel was soaked, and the rain hadn’t stopped. She couldn’t make it stop, either.

“I think he just gave us his blessing, such as it is,” Stone said, and in spite of everything, she laughed.

Author’s Note: I couldn’t help being reminded of the lake not far from my sister’s house when I wrote this. Well, that and the lake my uncle lives next to.

What the Water Needs

“Something go wrong at the bank?”

Cress shook his head, taking the first chair he could find. “No. Just… did our best not to lead them back here. If we are going to attempt to stay in one place, to plan and let Enya work on her control for a while before we make our move, the last thing we need is them knowing where we are.”

“So you drained yourself creating fake storms again?”

“He drained himself trying to teach me to make fake storms. Poor baby. He was so frustrated,” Oceana said, touching her brother’s cheek with a smile. He’d been rather patient, but she knew how much that had taken out of him, not just in teaching her and not intervening, but in keeping himself from yelling at her every time she failed to do what he wanted.

Cress sighed. “I don’t know how to teach someone to do it, not even Occie. For me, it’s so simple and I don’t really think about it, but I’ve been trying to show her, and it doesn’t make sense. I don’t… I don’t understand why I am the way I am—and a part of me doesn’t want to know.”

“I don’t blame you for that,” Oceana told him. She gave his cheek a kiss. “Go on. You’ve more than earned your lake time. I’ll see if I can find a beach ball or something…”

He glared at her, but it fell away to a smile. Playing in water almost always cheered him up, turning him more into the child he never had much of a chance to be. He pulled away from her, and she grinned as he walked toward the back door, opening it to let the smell of the lake water rush in at them.

“Oh, this is one of those places I could stay forever.”

“I think just about all of us could,” Moira said, coming over to Occie’s side. “If not for your parents, maybe we could have bought one of these kind of run down hotels out off the beaten path, each of us made a cabin our own, and lived out a quiet, peaceful life.”

“That what you’re interested in?”

“It’s not you, Firebug, that’s for sure.”

Oceana frowned, and Cress laughed, shaking his head as he ducked out the door. Moira rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she did. “He’s loopy now, isn’t he?”

“Cress? I don’t know. I guess that depends on if he goes down there and skinny-dips or not.”

Flint frowned. “You have got to be kidding. That man does not skinny-dip.”

“Not in the daytime, at least,” Oceana said with a smile, looking back at the door. “So if anyone decides they want to go down there, they don’t need to fear being flashed or anything. It is just that the more contact he has with the water the better it is for him. He needs to get as much of him under the water as possible and keep it that way for as long as he can.”

“Yet you two still get mad when I call you ‘guppies’ or mention anything about fish.”

Oceana gave Enya a look. “I thought you knew why he was so sensitive to that. Hannah throwing him over because he was ‘like a fish’ after she’d led him on for so long…”

“Yeah, there’s that, but he’s such a kid when he’s in the water or around it. I remember telling him about this lake I used to see from work, all drained because of drought, and when I lost that job, I walked over and sat on the beach, just watching that pathetic bit of water, and next thing I know, it’s up against my feet and he’s sitting next to me, telling me to take some of the money our parents had to tide me over until the economy got better. First time I’d seen him in years, and it was like he hadn’t aged a day over ten when we used to take those trips to the lake and he’d claim it for his own. Of course, that didn’t last forever. I could see it all when he said he was going—the life went out of him, the worry was back, and he looked like someone way past his age all over again.”

“That’s my brother,” Oceana agreed. She let out a breath. “We left what was in the safe-deposit box in the car. I’m not sure I ever saw the key before, not in any of the times we went to look at that thing and see what we might need from it, neither of us know what it’s for, but it’s got his name on it. I think he’s going to need a while before he can deal with that, so… Just let him be a kid in the water for a change.”

Moira nodded. “He can have some time. We won’t be ready to go after Stone right away, and we still don’t know for sure where he is.”

Oceana closed her eyes. “I’m going down to join Cress.”

Terra put a hand on her arm. “We’ll get him back, Occie. We have to get him back.”

Oceana pulled away from her. She couldn’t afford to let those floodgates open right now. She had to keep that back, hold it in until—well, she would rather just get Stone back and never deal with those feelings at all. “I hope so.”

Author’s Note: Time for Stone to remember more.

Memories from a Stone

Stone opened his eyes, aware of less pain in his chest but at the same time, he still couldn’t move. They must have been keeping him under heavier sedation than before, and he had no idea how long had passed since the last time he was conscious. This time he was alone, no water elemental hovering over him, though how long that would last was debatable. If his captors knew he was awake, he was sure to find himself getting more drugs.

While he was awake, he had work to do. He had to get his hands on something, get to the earth. He didn’t know that he could get free in his current state, but even the slightest bit of manipulation should send a ripple through whatever let them control the elements to reach Terra. She’d know. She’d know that he was here, and he knew they’d come for him if he couldn’t get himself free.

He would have to—Damn it. He couldn’t do anything, couldn’t feel earth, couldn’t feel anything.

He closed his eyes. The drugs might be kicking back in, or maybe he needed to wait longer before he tried again. He tried to pull up the image of the man he’d seen the last time he woke. He knew him. He had to remember how he knew him, though.

“…Told you not to come here. He’s got enough talent to sense you.”

Stone frowned, stopping in front of the Washburnes’ house, not liking the tone he heard in Mrs. Washburne’s voice. She saw him and waved, a smile on her face. “Hey, Stone. Remember that dinner’s at six, and if you see either of my wayward young ‘uns, tell them they’re wanted at home.”

Stone nodded. Sometimes he thought she tried too hard to be friendly to all of them, and he didn’t like her sudden cheerfulness. It had to be for the guy’s benefit, the one standing on her doorstep, the one Stone wasn’t supposed to know about, or she wouldn’t be bothering with the reminder. “Sure, Mrs. Washburne.”

“It’s Brooke.” She shook her head, guiding the man into the house. “You can call me that. Or something else if you like.”

Stone smiled, though he knew he’d never call her Brooke or Mom, even if she’d had custody of him and Terra for years now. “Right. I’ll go see if I can find Cress.”

She nodded, shutting the door behind her. Stone shook his head, not sure what the deal was with that man, but he figured Cress would. Cress knew too much about everything these days. Stone didn’t think he’d acted like himself since school started up again. Maybe they should blame that on Hannah, though. Too much time around normals.

“Damn it, why is it freezing all of a sudden?”

“Don’t know.”

Stone frowned, walking around the side of the building. He hadn’t been by any of the vacant ones in a while. Not even illegal aliens were willing to live next to all the weirdos on this street. “Cress? What are you doing? You… Are you sick?”

“Not exactly.” Cress wrapped his arms around his legs. “It’s… There’s something wrong with the water. It… It hurts.”

Stone could see that for himself. Cress couldn’t seem to keep from shuddering, and Stone would almost say the other boy was feverish. He looked like he had the flu or something—no color in him, just pain. “Where’s Occie?”

“Don’t know.”

“Here, let me take you home—”

“No! I don’t want to go anywhere near there right now. I’ll be fine. It’ll pass. I just need to—” Cress fell over, curling up into himself. “Can’t fix it. It’s like it’s fighting me.”

“Then don’t try again. You need to rest. I’ll find Occie.”

“If something’s wrong with the water, you want to find her, yeah, but she won’t be able to help him,” Enya said, coming around the other side of the building. She went to Cress’ side and touched his arm, frowning. “Do you think that if we could get you away from here, out to some fresh water like a river or a lake, would that help?”

“Don’t know.”

“Sounds good to me. I think I know how to get us there, but we have to get Occie first.”

Stone looked up to see Moira holding the keys to her mother’s car. He thought about arguing with her—none of them had a license—but if Occie looked anything like her brother… He’d never forgive himself. He picked up a handful of dirt and ran it through his fingers. “I know where she is. I’ll meet you back here in a few minutes. Get him in the car if you can.”

Moira nodded. “Come on, Enya, take that side. We can manage. Go, Stone. Occie needs you.”

Author’s Note: So they’re still asking questions, still sorting it all out. Not all of the questions are easy, nor are the answers or the feelings they bring up.

Not Accusing, but Not Understanding

“I’m not so sure his sister is the one he needs to rebuild,” Flint said, and Moira shoved him, not wanting to get into any kind of discussion like that. They didn’t pry into each other’s lives, not unless they were stupid like Sherwin. Moira wasn’t that stupid, not even with her relation to him.

“We need to get going.”

“I never made it to the safe-deposit box,” Cress said, fidgeting in Enya’s hold. “I think we’d better do that before we get too much further. I don’t know what all is in there, but we might end up needing it. Or it might have more of our answers.”

“You never looked at all of it?”

He shook his head, this time forcing himself away from Enya as he started to pace. “They told me that my instructions were there. You think I wanted to torment myself by reading what they expected me to do? It was bad enough what they told me to do, but to have to read it in black and white, all of that horror in undeniable print? I didn’t want that. I didn’t want that memory that I couldn’t get out of my head. I had enough of them already.”

“Cress, it wasn’t an accusation. Moira’s just trying to understand,” Enya said, reaching to touch him and drawing back at the last moment. “We all are. What we’ve learned about our parents—your parents—it’s hard to take. We don’t want to know, not any more than you did, and so then we come up against the idea of you knowing and not telling us—”

“They were dead. I wanted that to die with them. I know it was wrong, but it was bad enough contemplating what was before us without—the mind can only handle so much, you know? I’ll admit it. I was a coward. I didn’t think I could survive the emotional backlash of you all finding out. Even now, it’s not easy. I’m better at coping with that kind of thing, but back then… I was weak, I knew it, and I made a selfish decision to save myself. I made a lot of selfish decisions.”

Enya took hold of his arm. “Not all of them were selfish. You know that.”

He grimaced, and she pulled him back into her embrace, holding tight to him as the others stood around, uncertain how to react. Occie was the one who always did this for him, but she was standing back with a frown. Sherwin stared like he couldn’t believe it. Terra had found her hair fascinating all of a sudden. Flint just shrugged.

Moira gave them another minute before she cleared her throat. “I don’t know how I feel about not knowing, to be honest. A part of me is pissed, and another part of me figures you were probably right, given how badly you’re struggling with the backlash now. You had a judgment call to make, and you know what? For as many mistakes as you might have made, there were plenty of times where you made the right call or the hard call or the only call you could. That isn’t easy, and until someone else stands up here to do what you did for twelve years, they’ve got no right to criticize. You made this look easy, damn you, and it’s anything but.”

Cress almost smiled. “Anything to lure you into a false sense of security so that you’d take over.”

“Yeah, right.” Moira opened the door with the wind, letting it go around to the others as well, knocking Sherwin out of his stupor. “In the car. We need to move. Again.”

Author’s Note: Trying to get Enya toward control was not an easy thing to do. Even the baby steps in the beginning were rather difficult for her to accept.

Starting Down a New Path

“Enya?”

“Sorry. I guess my mind was wandering. How much longer can we stay here? Cress and Occie aren’t back yet, but if it’s getting to be time to go—”

“Almost. Cress should be on his way. He always had decent timing with that, and we need to get to somewhere where we can regroup properly—clothes, food, showers, all of that good stuff,” Moira said, putting a hand on her arm. “Look, I don’t know if you—I don’t want to do this. It isn’t my place, but it’s going to end up making another division between all of us, and I know we can’t afford that.”

“Moira, I… There’s no way I can jump from fear of killing everyone I’ve ever cared about to being able to accept Flint’s offer just like that,” Enya told her. She let out a breath. She’d been trying to be rational about it, trying not to let the instinctive panic always win, but it wasn’t something she was comfortable with. She’d only ever destroyed things when she tried to use fire, and she didn’t know why she would ever want to do that.

“No one is expecting you to accept it easily,” Moira said, turning to look back at the others. “Maybe some of them wish you could just do it, but that doesn’t make them right.”

“If we were going to do it, we’d have to find another lake. That way Cress could have a constant source to renew his strength if he had to stop me and if he or Occie weren’t there, you or Sherwin could knock me back in the water until I came around again.”

Moira nodded. “I’d agree, but I’m surprised you were willing to give it that much consideration.”

Enya sighed. “The entire time since I’ve been back with you, all I feel is helpless. I was able to dig up a few facts on the computer, but any of you could do that, too. I could drive, but then you all can drive. You, Sherwin, Terra, Cress, and Occie, you all fought to save us back there, and there was nothing I could do. When those people were frozen, I couldn’t help them, either. I don’t like being helpless or useless. It scares me to think of using fire, and I know none of us are sure if we can trust Flint or not, even if Cress says his emotions are genuine, so I’m not… thrilled about the idea, but I don’t want to go on living in fear or always hurting people. If it really is possible that Flint could teach me to overcome that and have control… I think I should want that. I’m too confused to be sure, too upset and all over the place. So much has happened…”

“Even with Cress sitting with you a couple times, you haven’t had much of a chance to process what happened at your house the other night.”

Enya closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about that. She didn’t want to be reminded of her latest kills. “I’m… I’d rather not deal with that.”

“You can’t avoid it. Bottling things up never helped anyone. If you don’t believe that, look at Cress. You know how much of a mess he is. Or Occie. You think she’s doing that well? She lost Stone, and she couldn’t even let herself grieve. Terra was all over the place, but Occie, she just shoved that down like she didn’t feel a thing.”

“She did, she had to, but Cress is her brother. She knows what emotions do to him, and she has to bottle hers, or she can’t help him. It’s a twisted cycle with them. She’s right, though. He needs to get away from all of this.”

Moira’s eyes went to the window. “The team is all he has, Enya. How easy was it for you to build a life when you were gone? Do you honestly think he could do that? He might have dozens of people who want to be around him, like leeches feeding off his ability. At least we know what we cost him and try and minimize it. Strangers wouldn’t bother. Remember all those normals at school, how they would drain him every day. Without us, he’s more vulnerable than ever. I know it’s not me, but if it was… I’d rather bleed for the ones I love than for strangers.”

Enya sighed. “He shouldn’t have to do it at all. We don’t know of any other elemental who got that part, do we?”

“No. Sometimes I think I should be able to read emotions in the air currents, but I haven’t quite gotten there. Sherwin swears that he can feel when someone wants him, but you know him.”

“Yeah.”

“Stone told Occie once that he can get some sense of what people are feeling if he’s touching the same dirt as them. He put his hand next to hers and told her she was lying about loving him. She made water come up from the ground, mud splattered his face, and she didn’t talk to him for a week after that. I don’t know that he was wrong, though.”

Enya bit her lip. “I never got anything from fire except fear.”

“No surprise.”

“No one asked for your opinion, Firebug.”

He shrugged. “I think I’d be willing to go along with this insanity just for the sake of pushing your buttons, Windy. It’s way too easy to get under your skin, isn’t it? No one’s rattled you for a long time, but I’m just the right person to do it.”

“Don’t start talking like my brother. I’ll shove you into a brick building next time.”

He grinned, ignoring her as he turned to Enya. “How about a lesson that doesn’t involve you doing anything with your abilities? I’m just curious to see if you can manipulate something I start without breaking a mirror. You don’t have to give me an answer right away. Take as long as you need.”

She frowned. “Why do you care?”

“If you’re as powerful as I think you are, we’re going to need you to stop Aether, and I want to stop Aether.” Flint put his hands in his pockets. “I’ve got another selfish reason—I miss my sister. I miss what it was like to have her around, how it felt to be in balance… I bet you do, too.”

“I… Aidan and I never had control and I…” Enya swallowed, not wanting to start panicking, but before she could, she felt something cool wash over her, turning toward the door to see Cress walking back inside.

She smiled, hesitant, wanting to go to him and be closer to that feeling he generated, but he’d just started renewing himself. She couldn’t do that to him. Flint shoved her forward, and she stumbled, wishing she had some control to make him pay for that, but he just grinned as the hand touched her arm. She looked up at Cress, feeling stupid.

“Hi.”

He fought a smile. “Hi.”

“Did you get a good swim?”

“Not really. You okay?”

She nodded. “I am. I’m getting better, I swear. Not sure I can go controlling that monster on the other side of the glass, but I’m not panicking at the idea of trying right now, and that’s got to be an improvement, right?”

“Yeah.”

A dozen things ran through her head, things to say or do, and she couldn’t think. She didn’t want to try and sort it out around him, that would hurt him too much, so she just wrapped her arms around him and tried not to think at all. It wasn’t so hard. This felt right.

Author’s Note: This is a favorite flashback of mine. I couldn’t resist writing it, and it was one of the first ones I wrote for this story.

A Cool Drink of Water

“Hannah dumped me. She says I kiss like a wet fish.”

Enya snorted, unable to stop herself from laughing. He glared at her, and she kept on laughing. She couldn’t help it. This was priceless. She knew she’d told him not to come to her when Hannah broke up with him, but if that was the idiot’s reason for it, well, Enya was going to laugh about it for a long time. Hannah was so stupid. She should have known. “You’re water. Of course you’d feel wet somehow. I’m surprised you don’t smell like fish and all that anyway.”

Cress gave her a dark look, and Enya wanted to laugh some more, but she had to stop herself when she saw hurt in his eyes. She’d heard him defend Hannah before, but she hadn’t realized how serious he was about their relationship. “You… You really liked her, didn’t you?”

He shrugged. “None of us has any business mixing with normals. I shouldn’t care.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t.” Enya knew he did. He cared a lot more than he should. Always.

He lowered his head. “I wish I didn’t. I know you don’t like her, but she was different with me. She’s… nice. Sweet and kind and nothing like us. We’re all screwed up by what we can do. She’s not. I envy her that.”

Enya shrugged. She did her best to keep herself normal, unlike the others. Cress was probably the worst of them, as much as he knew about what he did and how he did it, the way he seemed so much like his element most of the time. “Well, it could be worse. You could kiss like Sherwin. He sucks the air right out of you.”

Cress frowned. “What would you know about that?”

She stiffened. She hadn’t meant to tell anyone about that. It was still humiliating, the way he’d used her when they were younger, the way he’d abandoned her this time. “Nothing.”

Cress sighed. He always knew when she was lying. “I know you won’t listen, but… you shouldn’t get involved with him. I don’t have the right to tell you that, but I know things about him, and maybe he’ll grow out of it, but right now, he’s just… selfish.”

She pulled her knees up against her chest. She was aware of that. He hadn’t even bothered to get a new girl this time. He’d just let her go after her family died, afraid she’d kill him next. “Yeah, I know. It’s already over. Don’t worry about it.”

She felt Cress’ hand on hers and looked up at him. He gave her a slight smile as his touch soothed her. She almost smiled back, but then he spoke. “It was cruel of me to think it, but if we all kiss like our elements, then yours should burn. That would almost have been what he deserved.”

She was torn between laughing in agreement and the horror of the idea. “I’d never be able to kiss anyone if that was how it worked with me. I’d kill them.”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

“I’d hurt them.”

“Not all of them.”

She froze. “What… I… This—Cress, you’re not really thinking about kissing me right now, are you? You wouldn’t. Even if I was burning people and someone attuned to water was the only person I could have, that wouldn’t mean that you’d have to do that.”

“No one said I had to.”

She nodded, glad that was over. She didn’t need to cross that line with him, too. Bad enough what she’d done with Sherwin. She didn’t want to think about how stupid she’d been—again. She closed her eyes, and then she felt Cress’ hand on her cheek a second before his lips were on hers, and she wanted to pull away but at the same time, she didn’t.

How could Hannah have thought he was like a wet fish? Ever? She was such a moron. No, he was a refreshing drink on a hot day, one that Enya just couldn’t get enough of, and she didn’t care if she drowned. She wanted to drink all of him.

He sat back, and she stared at him, trying to summon words. He fidgeted. “Not like a wet fish?”

“No.”

“Good.” He rose, putting his hands in his pockets. “I’ll… Um, I’ll see you around.”

“So that was just an experiment?”

He turned back to look at her. “I… Well, you… It’s not like you’re interested in me, are you?”

She never had been before, and she didn’t want to let that kiss change anything. Cress was different. He was better than the rest of them and off-limits to the screw up, not that she’d thought about him that way until now. She wanted her ignorance back. “No.”

“Then… it was an experiment. I figured you were in a position to know what was good and what wasn’t, since you have a bit of experience, maybe more than I do, so… We’ll just leave it at that.”

“Yeah.”