The Initiative (A Sleeping Beauty Remix)

Twenty-Nine

Twenty-Nine

"Fire will not melt the pain / wind will not dissipate your memories."

-Ian Leonger, When I'm With You, Single

Oh Creator.

My mind thrust back into the past and locked me in another time. I shivered despite the heat, my heart rate spiking at the wall of flames that was Brayden. The dark hair, the broad shoulders, the way orange and white churned under his skin as if he were lit from within. It was the same. Everything was the same except this time, the pyrokinetic Ace knew how to wield his ability. He would not let it take over him. I stared at him-wanting to flee and yet, my feet would not move.

A scream echoed through the warehouse.

Marlee.

I stepped forward, snapping out of it. "Don't make me do this, Brayden." Please don't make me do this.

Though swallowed by the blaze, his eyes turned piercing yellow among the white flames. They were so bright it hurt to look at it for too long.

Soon he would experience burnout. That I was sure of. Every ability had its limits and all Wes and I had to do was wait it out and Brayden would bring himself to a vulnerable position all on his own.

Across from me, Wes moved forward too. The moment the flames sputtered out, we would get him. And we would kill him.

"This feels familiar to you, doesn't it?"

I frowned. How would he know? That incident had been isolated. Nothing more than a regular tactical mission. It had no connection to the main mission we'd had back then.

"We were watching that one," he said, tilting his head slightly, "hoping to use his ability as a base for testing, but The Initiative got there first." His flames climbed higher into the air. "And then we found you, Lewis." He laughed, "The irony is delicious, really. The one person whose sole focus was to shut us down ended up being the one who gave us our first breakthrough. " A pause, then, "We thank you."

I rolled my eyes, "Oh shove your thank you right up your-"

He threw a fireball at me. I hit the floor, narrowly missing getting my face cooked medium well.

I could copy his ability, but that would be nothing more than a repeat of 16 years ago. And I wasn't eager to do any repeats. I glanced over at Wes, at a bit of a loss. Marlee was out there and needed help. We couldn't sit here and wait for him to burn out. And the flames were way too hot to fire bullets at him. Even my tiny handy-dandy screwdriver would melt before it touched him.

Damn pyrokinetics.

Wes pulled out his gun.

"Go ahead," Brayden taunted. "Give it a try. You're wasting your-"

Wes fired at the ceiling. Once, twice, three times.

Brayden laughed, "Aria, your mate is broke-"

The sprinklers burst, water shooting to the floor with high velocity. Fire suppression systems in warehouses were designed to stop a fire in a big area fast, which meant they packed a lot of pressure into those pipes. Beautifully cold water drenched us all.

Brayden roared and shot forward.

Too fast. He caught me around the waist, his arms searing a hot brand along my hips. My clothes flamed, and I screamed, kicking outward. Brayden rolled with me, his body flat against mine, until we slammed into a nearby crate. All my nerves fried, the pain blinding. My first instinct was to pull the ability in to protect myself, but I resisted. I couldn't have a repeat of the past.