Elemental

Chapter 5

For the past few weeks, Christine trained, taking turns between combat training with Raquel and power training with Damien. It was going pretty well. Except the power training. She was so used to keeping her gifts under control and only using them when absolutely necessary that it felt like going against her instincts to constantly use them. The fear of her own powers that the council members admired was working against her and she was getting frustrated.

Raquel and Damien were both trainers by nature, both on opposite spectrums. Raquel was a hard-ass that reminded her of a drill sergeant. She pushed until she was sure you couldn't give anymore. It was with her that Christine was able to see her limit and expand it. Damien was more patient, more concerned about the mental capacities of her training than the physical. He believed that when she acquired strength of mind, the physical aspect of her training would go a lot smoother.

Damien had been kind at first about her lack of progress but it was week three now and she could tell he was getting irritated. He kept pushing her to use all her powers at once but it was draining her and she couldn't keep it up.

"Come on! You've done this before. You can do again! Just concentrate!"

She thought that Damien was just trying to encourage her but at that moment, he was really pissing her off. If she had been trying to control fire then it would have helped her but she was trying to control water while keeping the flaming tree next to her alive. The flames on the tree were growing but the water in her hands kept evaporating due to the anger. Finally, she gave up and spun around to face Damien.

"You screaming at me really doesn't help my concentration," Christine growled.

"And you think it's going to quiet out there, during a fight? If you can't even create a water shield—"

"Then what?" The grass around her burst into flames and Damien stumbled back. "You'll kick me out? After you practically begged me to join your goddamn resistance? You need me. Not the other way around."

"Then what the hell are you doing here?" He stepped closer, despite the spreading flames. "No one is forcing you to stay. Yes, I asked you here but I'm not keeping you here. If you want to leave then leave."

Damien stepped through the flames until he was standing in front of her. "You will be of no use if you treat us as though we are lesser than you. That's exactly what the dictators did and it is one of the reasons why we want to stop them."

Christine locked eyes with him. He stood his ground, barely flinching at the flames eating at his pants. She didn't want to admit it, but he was right. No one was going to accept her if she thought of them as needing her. She had decided to stay to put an end to the dictators' reign of terror and she couldn't do that without the resistance behind her.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing all her energy on creating a water shield. A dome of water formed around them and Damien relaxed. She opened her eyes and then expelled the water to put out the flames around them.

"You have a death wish, Goldilocks" Christine decided and was shocked when he laughed.