Objective: Fire

Chapter 20

Another one...
more fire... and more dead corpses...
Why ....
Why couldn't I save them....?
Why am I so useless.... I'm nothing without my powers... nothing...
They all lay around me... dead.. my parents.. Lloyd.. Nya... skylor...it was all my fault...
I couldn't save them...

" Kai! Wake up!"
The door to Kai's room bursts open and a red haired girl appears in front of him, standing above his bed, looking distressed.
" wa!? What's going on!? Why are you here!?" Kai shakes off his sleepiness and tries his best to forget his dream. It had only been a stupid nightmare... but it truly felt real.
" they got him!" She yells, unable to calm down. This gained his attention and he slowly gets out of his bed.
" who...?" Kai nervously asks, unsure who was captured. Was it Lloyd!? Or Jey? Were they alright!?
" Brine! They arrested him!" She yells. Kai couldn't believe it.
" who!? What happened!? Where is he!?" Kai wasn't sure why, but he felt worried for his team... he actually cared for them.
" we have captured him! Or.. I mean the X squadron! Some tracked him last night and spotted him talking to the ninja! Handing something over to them!" Kai froze. Brine has been spotted... someone had found out about him delivering the dagger to the enemy... it was all his fault.. he never should have sent him.. he had done this to him.. he had made things harder for him and now he was probably getting punished for what he had done...
" where is he now..?" His face saddens. He truly felt guilty about this and skylor sure noticed it.
" you did this... didn't you..?" Skylor spoke, watching Kai. He didn't reply. Of course it was Kai... of course...
" Kai... why didn't you tell me...?" Skylor lowered her head. She kinda knew why... but she actually wanted to be trusted... to be a good leader.. and honestly... she wanted to leave this place.. even Seliel had wanted to leave and now she's with the ninja...
Yet again he felt guilty. He hadn't trusted her, and he had a good reason to, but he could have given her a chance to do the right thing...
" I'm sorry... I..."
" you didn't trust me... I know.. sorry.." she cut him off, realizing how stupid her question sounded. She had no right to demand his loyalty..
Warm hands gently touches her face, gently moving straws of hair away from her eyes.
" no.. I'm sorry.. I should have let you know.. I should have given you the chance to do good.. because I see you want to do the right thing..." Kai looked her in the eyes. Quietly, they just stood there, facing each other, not saying a word. Skylor couldn't help but blush a little... he was gentle... very gentle.
" Brine is with Morro... I think he's been interrogated... I don't think this will end well for him... punishments here are very cruel.." she mumbled, remembering the time she and Seliel had made a mistake on a mission when they returned, they were severely punished.
" is there a way to help him..?" Kai mumbles, carefully taking her hand in his, hoping it would calm her a little...
She shook her head. " no... Kai... what did you deliver to your team? What was so important?"
Kai knew he had to tell her. She was a part of their team, she deserved to know.
" the dagger of earth... you guys forgot to take it yesterday, and I found it... but I don't want to bring back the dark lord.. so I asked Brine if he could deliver it to Lloyd for me.."
Kai got more serious now.
" skylor... we can't allow the X squadron to find the last tomb of fire..." without another word, he grabbed both of her hands and lead her out of the room, walking down the hallway towards who knows where.
" Kai! Where are you taking me!? What's going on!?" She called out, unsure of what was going on with him.
" we're going to find Brine and leave this place. But there's one thing I need to know before we do this..." he replies.
" and what's that...?" Skylor asks.
" are my parents really alive...." the words were softer... more painful.
Skylor didn't know what to say... because she didn't actually know.
" Kai... I don't know if they truly have your parents... for all I know.. it could be fake, it could just be a way for them to keep you here.." she tells him, now forcing him to slow down as they walked.
" so you don't know then... but... if they where here.. where would they be held captive?" Kai turns to face her.
This was also hard for skylor to reply to. Honestly, she didn't know. She had never been assigned to stand guard, but she had some idea to where to look for it.
" I know there's a prison down this hall,.. but Kai, I don't think they would be held prisoners there.."
" what makes you say that?" He replies.
" we don't hold super important prisoners there. Like the day we kidnapped you... you were placed in a special made cell, to keep you there and prevent you from escaping by using your abilities" skylor tells him. Kai quietly nods. That was true...
" then where...? Where could they be?"
Skylor slowly shakes her head.
" they're not here kai... the X squadron has different bases around... not big ones like this one, but they have different sections with different purpose. Like one of them are prisons. I believe your parents are being held somewhere else."
This wasn't good news to Kai, but he had to see if she was telling the truth. Without another word, he turned and walked down the hallway to the cells where they held prisoners, even though he believed skylors words to be true. But he had to be sure...
he reached the cells and looked around for his parents. But most of the cells where empty and the few prisoners that were there didn't seem to be normal people either. Some serpentines and probably pirates, but other than that... no parents.
" see..?" Skylor mumbels from behind, gently placing a hand on his shoulder.
" yeah... I see.." Kai replies, somewhat happy to know that his parents weren't there. For all they knew, they could still be free or dead... he had been told that his parents had died.. but he was never in their funeral... maybe his home town village didn't want him to go through such a thing..? He was only 5 after all, and Nya had only been 3. They would probably not have understood what was going on... many people had died in their village when it was attacked... but were his parents among them?
" come Kai... let's try and find Brine alright?" Skylor began to pull him away towards the exit when Kai suddenly noticed something. One of the prisoners... no, it wasn't his parents.. but he recognized the person sitting there. He gently shakes off Skylors hand and walks over to the cell where the person he believed he knew sat.
" Ronin...?