The Elementalists

EMMA

I sit with my legs stretched out in front of me. I stare at the green trees that Daemon had dragged Angel into, and I wonder why Angel would try to choke Mark. He'd seemed so nice; he'd seemed so kind and gentle, and then all of a sudden, he'd tried to kill Mark...

   "Why would Angel try to kill you?" I ask as I look over at Mark, who's sitting next to me with a frown on his face. "Did you tick him off or something?"

   Mark shakes his head. "I don't know," he replies. "All I know is, he helped me get here; he gave me Shyan and a GPS." I raise my eyebrows and Mark adds, "Shyan is what I named my scooter. Anyways, Angel was all for helping me until I told him that my element was fire. Then he started screaming that he hated me before he left."

   I think back to when I'd first met Angel, and ask, "He went berserk when you told him your element, right?" Mark nods.

      I close my eyes and remember what Angel had told me, "The last Fire Elementalist was bad. She did this. She killed my family, you know. All I saw was black snow, 'cause I was playing in the woods, and I came running back, but it was too late. They were gone."

   My eyes fly open and I blurt out, "He hates you because he blames you for what the last Fire Elementalist did!"

   "What did he do?" Cooper asks.

   "It was a 'she,'" I reply. "She killed Angel's mother and brother; she burnt his house down, and he never forgave her, not even after she'd died. Mark, Angel blames you for what she did!"

   "But...but I wasn't even alive then...," Mark says slowly. "So how could it have been me? I couldn't have done anything to stop her, or I would have..."

   "That Angel kid's mentally unstable," Jamal points out.

   "Look who's talking," John mutters. He looks at Mark and asks, "So, what's the plan?"

   "The plan?" Mark asks. He laughs and replies, "I don't really have a plan.... It's more along the lines of 'save Robin' and 'stay alive.'"

   "I like that plan," John says, "especially the 'stay alive' part. Death isn't really on my to-do list."

   "I don't think it's on Robin's, either," Peter says with a sigh.

   "So," I say, "I think we should all stick to Mark's plan. But there are some major problems... How are we going to get to the Lab? Who's going to go inside the Lab? What are we going to do after we're all together again, since we're apparently being hunted by the authorities?"

   "Well," Mark says, "those are pretty big problems, so we should take them one step at a time. Let's figure out how we're going to get to the Lab first." He looks over at Peter and asks, "Any ideas?"

   Peter nods. "I bet Daemon and Angel could figure out a way," he says, "since I doubt public transportation will get us there on time."

   "Then it's settled," I say. "Let's go find Daemon and the bi-polar kid."

   "You don't need to look for us," an all-too-familiar voice says. "We know when we're needed."

   Daemon walks out from underneath the shade of a nearby tree, and I jump. How did none of us notice his presence? He grins as if he realizes he's scared us a bit, and then he holds out five rectangular slips of paper.

   "They're airplane tickets," he begins to explain, but as he begins to count them he swears aloud. "Damn it! Angel! Urgh, the brat took the one with Fire Kid's name on it." He hands the five tickets to us and says, "One's for the little girl. Don't ask how I got those; you should just know it wasn't legally. I'll return shortly."