The Elementalists

DAEMON

"Why are we even talking about hair right before what could be a life-or-death battle?" Jamal asks.

"Because Robin almost burned hers off," Mark replies. "Maybe I should light the way instead...we don't want a charred Robin on our hands."

"Shut up," Robin snaps, but she's laughing.

The remaining few minutes of the walk is silent until we reach the last step and Robin says, "We're here."

I move up to stand next to Jamal, who stands next to Mark. Robin stands in front of us; we all stand at an intersection of the tunnels—there's a tunnel ahead of us, an-other to the right, and a third to the left. Robin turns around to face me and asks, "Which way do we go?" but before I can answer, Mark gasps and starts to fall over.

I run over and manage to catch him right before he hits the ground, and notice that his eyes are glowing. He remains like that for a few seconds before the glow fades away; I set him down on the ground, and he blinks. He slowly begins to sit up, and Robin and Jamal each grab one of his hands and help pull him to his feet.

"Are you alright?!" Jamal and Robin ask almost simultaneously. Marks nods and wipes his hands on his jeans, as if that will rid of the uncomfortable feeling he must be experiencing. Angel always did the same thing after he had a vision.

"So," I say, looking over at Mark, "I'm assuming you know the way?"

Mark looks up at me, a surprised expression on his face. "How did you know?" he asks. "I mean how'd you know that I just...what I just saw?"

"Angel had visions, too, you know," I reply. I notice Mark and Robin wince at the boy's name, and I feel a little guilty for bringing up pain that they're trying to bury. "They always involved what was about to happen that we needed to stop, or things that needed to be done, and once or twice, the Prophecy."

"Oh," is all Mark says before pointing straight and adding, "it's that way."

We all follow Mark as he leads us through the tunnel—first straight, then left, then continue straight, and so on. When he points to the right and says, "There's a room through here. That's the last thing I saw," I tell everyone to wait before entering.

"Why? We don't have time for this!" I hear someone say, but I ignore them.

"Listen," I tell them, "when we go in there, no matter what, don't let your guard down. She may look like an innocent girl, but she's out to kill," I look at Mark as I say this, "and she can make anyone of you disappear in an instant. As if you were never born. It takes up a lot of her power, but if she makes one of you disappear, we won't even remember you. She erased the time you spent with us. There's always a loophole in these things, but I've yet to find the loophole in that one, and I don't want to risk it. She can't hurt you if she doesn't touch you. She has to be touching you to control the time involving you. So don't let her touch you, got it?"

Mark, Jamal, and Robin all nod. I take a deep breath and exhale before asking, "Are you all ready?"

"Yeah...," I hear Mark and Jamal mumble, as if they're unsure if they're ready to go or not. Robin just stands there, her hands clasped together, and her face full of worry.

She's scared she'd going to lose one of us, I realize. She knows that Time's main target is Mark because of the Prophecy, and she's scared as to what Time will do to hurt him.

She's scared for us.

I walk up to her and put my hand on her shoulder. "Everything will be alright," I promise her.