Consuming Fire

Chapter 71

After the chaotic discussion in the communications room, Joshua needed air. He needed cold air, but that apparently wasn't the season outside in the Nevada desert where the sun was at its quarterly mark and the air was warm even with the breeze. Still, it was peaceful and quiet and that was exactly what he'd searched for.

"So you and Miss Smart, huh?"

Joshua nearly jumped out of skin, turning to see that Hunter had found him on the cliffs nearby the hatch of the compound sealed into the mountain. Over to the right, down the way on a ledge, was where they cremated the three dead children.

Hunter skidded down the slope and sat next to him.

"This is not a comfortable subject for me," said Joshua if he had to be honest.

Hunter sniffed. "It's never been a comfortable subject. You still do that thing where you blush and your eyes go all squinty."

"Well ... it's sunny out here."

Her hair hadn't looked so clean and healthy since the first few months she had her powers. It helped to be happy and free again, to let the fire roam.

"A lot's changed since we were last together Joshua. A lot."

"I know."

"So whatever is happening between you and Miss Smart, I'm going to choose to be okay with it."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "You are?"

"Yep." She nodded her head firmly. "Things are crazy right now and if you can find love in all this chaos ... well, you deserve to have someone."

Joshua felt more guilt seep from his soul again. "Hunter, I am so sorry about Eli. And about Jenny. In fact I'm sorry for every wrong I ever did you. I shouldn't have been so strict on you when you first discovered your powers, I shouldn't have kept secrets from you or tried to stop you from seeing Eli. I'm sorry that all this time I never told you how much I truly love you."

Hunter gazed at him, her golden eyes swimming with a smile of wonder. "You have no idea how good it is to hear you sat that."

Joshua lowered his head and breathed a laugh. A relieved laugh.

"I'm sorry too," she said to the valley. "I'm sorry that I was such a whiney, moody, impatient, self-centered, angsty teenager last year. I thought that I deserved better than you, that I was better than you. But I had a lot to learn about humility. And about being a hero."

"Doesn't look like it now," he said. "You're more of a hero than I ever was."

"Not really," she smiled. "You were a hero every day Joshua. Every day when you made me breakfast and you burnt the toast." He sniffed a laugh, shaking his head. "Or when you came to my piano practice when I was seven years old and that fat woman with the 80s haircut kept begging for you to ask her out until you-"

"Told her I was a homosexual?" They laughed so hard that real tears formed in Joshua's eyes. "I never wanted to show up to that rehearsal hall ever again!"

"I know!" she grinned. "But you did. I never noticed how much you cared about me. You were there every day to pick me up from school. And I couldn't even stay for your entire university benefit without running off with some boy I just met."

Joshua sighed. "We could sit here and compare our mistakes Hunter, but the truth is we're both broken people. And we're going to keep making mistakes."

"I guess being away from you put things into perspective for me. And life will never be the same again, you know?"

"You're right. Did you have any luck with Mikayla?"

"Sort of. I'm getting Zac and Marcus to talk to her later and see if they can get anything from her. She told me Dr. Wolfe is apparently working with the Chinese and Korean government. Obviously they want to settle some score with our country and he's using them as a distraction while he goes after the real prize."

"Ravenadium," Joshua nodded thoughtfully. "So there'll either be a fight between us and whatever threat there is to the President, or there'll be a fight with Dr. Wolfe, his Agents and those crazed mutants he let loose."

"Question is; do we have enough strength in numbers?"

"We have our team, the new 'Impossibles', the SSS soldiers and whoever else wants to volunteer, and I'm sure the FBI will lend us a SWAT team or some SEALs even." Joshua shook his head. "Ultimately, I think our best bet is to wait for the doctor to make his move. We can't waste any more time discussing strategies."

"Well it's better than doing nothing, right? I mean for so long I was in ICE feeling like I was doing nothing, letting Dr. Wolfe get away with so much torture and not being able to do a thing about it. It was so hard to have so much power inside me and yet feel so much fear for a mortal man."

Joshua nodded. "But you have to remember what's important. Which reminds me-" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver chain with a Chinese symbol attached to it. It was the necklace she left with Eli the night of prom. The necklace her mother made for her. "We're all human." She bent her head and lifted the red curls that blew around her face so he could clip the necklace together. "You can have a power and still be scared. But the true heroes are the ones who have courage, even when they have no power at all."

Her eyes glowed as she looked into his face, a rush of thankfulness washing over him like the desert wind. He should savor this moment of being alone with her. They were endless when the two of them lived alone in New York. But everything was different now. She was different.

"I'm proud of you," he said. "Your parents would be too."

Hunter leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. The smell of her hair pressed against his cheek and the strangeness of fire touching his skin in an uncomfortable warmth was no bother to him anymore. Just to be near her, alive, was blessing enough for a man who did not deserve such happiness.