The Elementals

Death, Cliffs, And Jealousy Oh My

I wake up when Caelum nudges me. I jump, realizing I fell asleep on his shoulder. He laughs and I scowl out the window so he can't see that my face is red. It's morning. The plane shudders to a stop on a runway. I grab the water bottle warily. Caelum slowly stands up, on guard. I follow him to the door, ready to fight. It swooshes open and we both leap back. I peer around the door. It must have opened electronically, because no one is here. I jump out. We're in some sort of huge dome. It's black and has pulsing blue lines through it, like cracks on a plate. Despite the dark ceiling, the room is well lit, how I don't know.

"Caelum," I say and he comes up next to me. "Try doing your gravity thing."

He looks at me quizzically, but then he turns and concentrates. Nothing. He glances back at me, confused. I point to the dome and try emptying the water from the bottle. I can't feel the rush, the way things come sharply into focus, anymore. I curse. This stuff is worse than the white glass. It completely prevents us from using our powers at all. The others stir awake and come out of the plane. I see Steel trying to bend some metal off the plane, and then turn towards me with grim look on his face, confirming that he too, can't use his powers. Stella doesn't disappear into the shadows like normal.

Suddenly, a door opens on the other end of the dome. A line of uniformed men walk out. They march towards us, the door closing swiftly behind them. They're wearing these weird looking helmets and chest plates made of the same white stuff I've seen before. Each holds a pair of the white bracelets that were on Coal and Steel in the facility. I growl, stepping in front of everyone to face the soldiers. I stop when I hear a wheezy voice from the middle of the formation. The men step back to reveal Breeze, thin and worn on stretcher.

I hear Stella step back and gasp in horror. "The brain sickness!" She hisses fearfully. Well that sounds lovely.

"Tide?" Breeze asks, looking around blindly. Her eyes are white, like she has catarax.

I race over to her, shoving a few men out of the way. "I'm here," I tell her. "Breeze, what did she do to you?" Breeze's frame is bony, her eyes sunken into her head. Her hair is tangled and wispy. Her skin is almost see-through it's so pale. Breeze coughs, shudders running through her whole body.

"Chip...in my head..." She whispers, breathing raggedly. "Controls me...sorry...hit you."

"Stop straining yourself," I tell her hurriedly because her breaths are getting shallower.

She shakes her head. "Know I'm...dying. The chip...messes up...brain...nerves. Don't let her...do the same...to you."

Tears are rolling silently down my cheeks. I grip her cold hand. It's quivering. I want to say she can't die, that she won't, but it's not true. Breeze knows; it would be an insult to try and raise her hopes. I just sit with her as her fingers slowly go limp. Then the stretcher is carried away, Breeze's arm dangling lifelessly over the edge. The door opens and closes quietly.

It feels like someone just took half of me away with that stretcher. I sit there in shock, while the white bracelets are put on my wrists. I don't fight; don't complain as they drag me and the others out of the dome. Breeze was always there, to reassure and back up my plan. I gave her so many reasons to give up on me but she never did. Now she's gone. She's gone. Gone, forever.

Dead.

I'm thrown, ungracefully sobbing, into a cell. I fall to the floor and just sit there. I hear an argument, some shouts and shoving, and before the door closes, Caelum squeezes in. He walks over and sits down next to me. He doesn't say anything. I'm curled up, trying to get in air, tears streaming down my face, and he doesn't say anything. No sarcastic comment, no jibe at my weak state. He just sits there. It takes me a second to realize I'm leaning on him, pressing my face into his shoulder. I think about getting up, but I can't stop crying. It's like all those held back tears from the smaller kids leaving me at the orphanage and Breeze is just pouring out.