From Ashes We Rise (The Darkest Minds)

PART 2/ Heart On Fire

  (SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO MAKE PART 2. YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN SO AWESOME AND SUPPORTIVE AND I PROMISE YOU GUYS WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED WITH PART 2. ENJOY!)

    I took in sharp and raggedy breaths as I sat in the cold room. The cold stale air of the medical room made my stomach turn. I swallowed hard and rubbed my fingers together, waiting for the doctor to come in. I chewed on my cheek until the raggedy flesh peeled off. I hated being in quiet rooms by myself. I hated being by myself in general. It always gave my mind too much time to think, too much time for it to wander off and think about all that has happened. My eyes flicked up as the doctor walked in.
"Hi, Danielle."
I pulled my eyes down to the floor, not answering her. I never really talked to anyone other than my friends. She pushed the door shut and sat down in a chair across from me. She asked me the same questions as usual. I answered them the same way, until she came to a new set of questions.
"You said the other day that you were angry...what are you angry at?"
I sighed.
"I, um...guess I'm just angry at everything. The fact that I let Sebastian get in my head, the fact that he's dead, the fact that I'm here."
I shrugged. "I don't know...just everything."
"Is that how you would describe your everyday mood? Angry?"
I just shrugged. I wanted nothing more than to just get out of this office.
"Wouldn't you be if you turned into a weapon...a monster? If the League took everything you love away from you? If the only person you cared about was dragged away and murdered for something he can't help?"
She swallowed hard and shifted uncomfortably in her chair.
"What would you say to Sebastian if he were here right now?"
I thought about that for a moment. I could ask him why. We could've escaped. I could've gotten us all out alive, so why did he make us go with the League? Why did he choose to basically kill himself? But then I really thought about it. If Sebastian were standing in front of me right now, there's only one thing I would do.
I bit my cheek. The smoldering fire coursed through my veins. The silence dragged on for too long. My eyes flickered up to Dr. Strickland's. I let out a faint chuckle.
"I'd hurt him until he understands the pain I feel everyday."
She gawked at me, shock painted on her face. I could tell that wasn't the answer she was expecting. She swallowed hard and went back to the other questions on her paper. To my liking, that was the last day of therapy. I couldn't figure out whether Strickland was just done with me or if Johnson lost his patience. I figured it had to do with Johnson's eagerness to start my training. Johnson was the man in charge here. I hated that man with every fiber of my being. I pretty much hated everybody here. I walked back to my quarters and slammed the door shut, falling onto my bed and staring up at the dark ceiling. They gave me a room to myself, mostly because nobody wanted to room with me, to room with a Red. There were only three people who could stand my presence. Rose, Jessica, and Ally. Jessica and Ally could only stand to be around me because of Rose. Rose was the one who seemed to genuinely like me, while Jess and Ally were only there because they follow Rose around like a puppy. Rose was a Green. Jess was a Yellow and Ally was a Blue. My phone buzzed on my pillow. I picked it up and cracked a small grin as I saw Sheng's name pop up. Sheng, Jasper, and Issac were sent to the headquarters in Los Angels, hundreds of miles away from North Dakota, which is where they transferred me. They never told me why. But I knew it was because they were a distraction to me. I was the last Red who's mind wasn't turned to mush by the military. To these people in here though, I minus well be a ticking time bomb. That's how they all looked at me anyways. As if I'm going to explode. I was too pissed off all the time to care though. I brought the phone closer to my face and read Sheng's message.

"Hey, Danni! I think we're being sent on our first mission in a few weeks and guess what! Its gonna be in North Dakota!"

My lips twisted into a frown. There was no way they'd be allowed to stop here after their op. Theres no way they'd allow us to see each other so what was the point of me getting my hopes up? A knock came from the door. I turned just as Rose peeked in. She stood in the doorway, her round olive face lighting up the room as she smiled. Her dark eyes latched onto mine. I didn't greet her with a smile or anything really. I was kind of a douche to her, yet she never stopped being nice to me.
"They're serving lunch now," she informed me.
I turned and stared back up at the ceiling.
"I'm not hungry," I mumbled.
"Well, I was wondering if you could come with me?"
I sighed. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to get some fresh air. Besides, Rose was the only one who'd actually been talking to me. As much as I wanted to tell her to shut up and leave me alone, I owed it to her to be nice at least once. I pushed myself off of the bed and nodded. A warm smile spread across her face as I walked towards her. She wrapped her arm around my shoulder.
"Thanks!"
I wacked her arm away. Of course, she ignored my rudeness and kept smiling. That was probably what annoyed me most of all. The fact that she never got mad.
I kept my head down as we made our way into the mess hall. I grabbed my food and sat at the lunch table, swirling my fork around in my food. I scrunched up my nose in disgust as I glared down at the contents on my tray. Nothing excited me more than cold lumpy mashed potatoes and half cooked chicken breast. I glanced up at Jess and Ally. They ate their food and smiled as Rose talked.
"What do you think, Danielle?" Rose asked me. I kept my eyes locked on the undercooked chicken, not even knowing what they were talking about.
I sighed and stabbed my fork into the chicken.
"I didn't hear a damn thing you said," I mumbled.
"Oh," Rose mumbled. She went on talking again but I zoned her out. I pulled my eyes up as a boy walked passed me. This wasn't any boy though. This kid was Andrei Saunders. I didn't know him personally or anything. I just knew that he was a Blue and that he painfully reminded me of Sebastian. He had the same face shape, same eye shape, and the same nose. The only difference was the blond hair and blue eyes. My heart ached every time I saw him. It ached with sadness and with anger. That's usually how I felt everytime I thought of Seb now. He sat down at the table diagonal from us. My heart froze as his blue eyes caught mine. I didn't break eye contact and neither did he. My eyes narrowed into slits, anger coursing through my veins.
"What?!" I shouted. His eyes widened and he instantly yanked them back down.
I rested my face against the palm of my hand and sighed, rolling my eyes too. I turned my head to the side as an agent stood next to our table.
"Johnson wants to see you three," he said. He pointed to Andrei. "You too."
The agent lead us to Johnson's office. He opened the door and I sauntered in, my head high and earbuds in. Johnson motioned for us to sit in chairs laid out in front of his desk. I slouched down in the one furthest away. I could barely hear his voice through my blasting music. I really didn't care for anything he had to say. I was gonna be a huge jerk to him, and any other agent or kid who so much as looked at me funny. Or looked at me at all. I felt someone tap me on my shoulder. I looked up to see the other's staring at me. Jess pointed to Johnson. He motioned for me to take my earbuds out. I sighed irritability and rolled my eyes as I slowly took them out.
"As I was saying," he continued. I gave him the death stare as I listened. He was just talking to us about another useless mission. Another day not being able to see my family. Another day further away from them. I curled my fingers into tight fists as he kept talking about the mission. I was done. Screw this. I rolled my eyes and shoved my earbuds back in my ears. He finally dismissed us. I pushed myself out of the chair. "Wait!" he yelled. I stopped in my tracks. "Not you."
He didn't have to say a name for me to know who he was talking to. I sighed and slowly turned around to face him as Rose closed the door behind her. He motioned for me to sit in the chair closest to him. "Sit," he said. I lazily sat down in the chair and sunk down in it, the attitude glowing off my face. His eyes narrowed as he glared at me. I glared at him right back, fighting the urge to set his desk on fire. "Take those earbuds out," he said calmly. I smirked and turned them up all the way. My ears ached but I had to prove a point. His face hardened. He leaned over his desk and snatched my earbuds, taking my phone with them. Before I could even yell, he slammed my phone into the hard corner of his table. My phone shattered and I could see the screen shut off. That was my only way of actually knowing how the others were, my only escape from ths God-forsaken base. I could feel the vein on my head bulge. I shoved myself out of the chair.
"Are you freaking kidding me!" I screamed. He leaped up too, the rage in his face.
"It's time you start showing respect! You walk around here giving attitude to every agent and kid in here, you do nothing to help, and you just sit in your quarters all day!"
I just glared down at my shattered phone. The music and reading Sheng's messages were the only things keeping me sane. It felt as if he had destroyed Sheng instead of my phone. "What happened? We have done nothing but treat you well. Why are you acting this way?!"
I looked up at him, my eyes watering with anger. I squeezed my fists and could feel them heat up intensely. I clenched my jaw and slammed my smoldering hot fists on his desk.
"You took everything away from me!" I screamed, the tears spilling over my eyes. I shoved the desk forward and slammed his door behind me. I ran into my quarters, shoving clothes, food, and water into a pillow case. My muscles froze in place. My eyes locked on the wall in front of me.
Where are you gonna go, Danni? I told myself.
Huh? Your friends are with the league, everyone else you once knew is either dead, in a camp, or with the league. You have no one. Nothing...but here.
Misery, pain, anger, and sadness swirled around in my heart. I squeezed my eyes shut as I collapsed to my bedside. My center sprawled with heat, shooting up my throat. I lerched my head back and screamed, pushing the fire out of my throat. The fire smooshed into the air. I slammed my mouth shut and placed my head in my palms...but I didn't cry. Not a single tear escaped my eyes. I'd already cried every tear my eyes had to offer.

  Two days had passed after that. I didn't talk to anyone. I barley even looked at anyone. Today was the first day of training. I already knew how to fight from being in the Red camp and the league once before. Andrei was teaching us. Apparently he had been on a few OPs before. He was one of the league's best Blues. He spoke to everyone in the room, which was just Rose, Jess, Ally, and I. He was really only talking to those three. I stood in the back and daydreamed about leaving this place. I didn't hear a single word he said. I just imagined reuniting with Sheng and the others and running off to New Zealand or Tokyo. Yeah...Tokyo. I knew it was far fetched but in those places, we could hide our abilities. They didn't fear kids in Tokyo, or anywhere else like they did here. My eyes snapped to Andrei as he cleared his throat. His arms were crossed as he glared at me.
"A—are you even listening, Danielle?" he asked, his voice cracking with that unmistakable tremor of fear. I glared at him for a moment, surprised that he had built up the courage to talk to me. The other day he wouldn't even look me in the eye. I never responded to his question. He motioned me towards the matt.
"Since you don't need to listen, maybe you wouldn't mind demonstrating?"
His voice sounded stronger this time. More confident. The others stared back at me, their faces white with shock. I smirked as I started towards the matt. Why not? I thought. I've got a lot of pent up agression I need to get out anyways.
He slowly raised his fists as we stood across from each other. Andrei was so much bigger than I was. He was probably about...six feet. Maybe even 6'1. It didn't really intimidate me though
"You know, you could just apologize. Then we wouldn't have to do this."
Again, I was silent, not uttering a word. "Promise you won't burn me though, kay?" he said.
I chuckled as I raised my fists, that smirk still spread across my face.
His face hardened as he charged at me. The long lost memories of my training raced through my head. He raised his fist, leaving his side exposed. I dodged his fist and jabbed mine into his side. He gasped. I grabbed the back of his neck and slammed my knee into his gut. He gasped and stumbled back, doubled over in pain. I threw my foot towards his face. He leaped up, dodging my blow. I gasped as I felt a hard blow to my side. His foot jammed into my side again. I gasped again as landed on one knee. I quickly wrapped my hand around the back of his knee, reaching up and curling my fingers around his throat. I shoved him down to the ground. Pain burst from my chest as he knee collided with my ribs. He rolled onto his hands and knees and pushed himself up. I jumped up and charged towards him.
I placed my foot on his hip and propelled myself upward, wrapping my legs around his neck and flipping him head over heels. We slammed onto the floor. I grabbed his arm and yanked it back. He grunted as I stretched his muscles.
I rolled over and at that moment, something took over. I didn't even think about it. I got ontop of him and forced fire into my palm, holding it close to his face.
"Stop!" he gasped. My eyes widened as the realization hit me. I closed my fist, extinguishing the fire. I glared down at his petrified face. I—I wasn't going to—I never meant to—. I pushed myself up and diverted my eyes.
"I don't need to listen," I mumbled. I kept my eyes down, not looking at the others. I made my way to my quarters and shut everyone out.

  We spent the next month training. The one thing I did need help with was firearms. At first, I couldn't aim, but once I got the hang of it, I was lethal. The next morning we loaded up in a chopper and headed to the location of the OP.