Rayo scanned the area once again, her breath deep and deliberate. She got the same result as two minutes ago but still could not help but be edgy.  Forests did that to her. They made her edgy.

Night sky had cloaked the terrain about an hour ago, painting the forest in an ethereal canvas of black. Though the fire had died long back in the evening, clouds of poisonous fogs were still hovering above the canopy. And amidst this mass of chaos somewhere in the north was the only remaining mine to be collected and somewhere in the south were Liam and Claire deep inside a cave. Rayo bit her inner lip. Their heat signatures had not moved an inch since the first time she checked and that was six hours ago. There was no way they were immobile in that latitude with Liam on the team. The tightness in her chest clenched once again as she muttered to herself.

He must be hurt. Badly.

Rayo did not know what happened but she could predict just fine from the heat signature Liam was giving out. His body was emitting a voluminous amount of heat. He would have to have a lethally high fever and excruciating pain to release such a high temperature. Adding that with the fact that she heard mines blasting from somewhere there as they were eluding and Claire having absolutely normal temperature could only mean one thing - Liam used his chi to shield themselves while taking a hit from the mine. Mines and fire were not a problem for a fire wielder like Liam but water afterward was.

Liam just could not stand water after releasing his chi. It was his Achilles heel as a fire wielder.

Rayo tried calming her nerves. But her gut felt tied into a tight knot with the feeling that something would go wrong again and this time there would be no saving anyone.

The task they had ahead of them was simple really - going after the mine as the fog settled once, bringing Liam and Claire back and getting the hell out of there.

So simple yet Rayo could not stand still. She craned her neck and looked back at the rest of the team. They were asleep by the stream, recovering from the arsine that entered their system. They resembled ghostly silhouettes of carcasses left after a war. If any one of them inhaled arsine at a  lethal dose, they would have crossed the extent any medical help could offer. The knot in her gut tightened at the thought. And somehow, Rayo could not help but blame herself for what happened.

I should have known

She was a CPA(Complex Process Analysis) expert. Analyzing situations into equations and bringing the best route onward considering all the variables was her thing and she happened to be one of the bests in her field. Rayo never failed to consider all the glitches before planning out any mission and make a backup of the backup plans. A hole in her plan meant a man doomed but her slate had been clean. Always. She just could not believe she miscalculated such an important variable. That Jennifer could be so stupid.

Except for she was not.

Rayo still could not figure out why she did what she did. Her diligence had always been a constant. She knew Jennifer for as long as she knew Liam. They practically grew up together in the facility but never once Rayo witnessed her failing her task, not even a small one let alone at this epic scale. Releasing chi with this perfect blend of chaos and power could never be an accidental process. She had to have done it deliberately but Rayo could not figure out why she would make such a blunder. It was driving her crazy.

Then there's that stench

Rayo bit her inner lip again. She was taken aback by how it took the stench so long to reach her nose. They were practically in an open space. But it was not till she sprinted 100 meters that it hit her.

She rested her head against the rock she was sitting on and exhaled. It was like nothing was working out today. Only questions after questions were stagging up in her mind with no answers in the queue.

The exhaustion, the arsine, the forest, the weight of the lives on her shoulder, the guilt of the pain Liam was in - everything suddenly felt too much on her 17 years old frame. Rayo could feel her migraine setting in slowly. She felt like falling into a long long sleep and waking up without a clue in the world. But she did not. She knew she could not. While they had their worse going on in here, time was ticking away fast. There was no way of knowing what Frorer would bring forth as a penalty if they failed this one. After all, Phoenix was not an organization built on the pillars of sympathy.

She instead breathed out slowly and waited for the fog to lift so that she could go unlatch the mine without setting out another wildfire and bring Liam and Claire back as soon as possible.

Lord knows how worse he took the toll

Her lethargy instantly switched its place with vigilance as a twig snapped behind her.  She scanned the area for heat signature as her hand shifted on the holster on her waist. A silhouette was walking towards her in the dark.

"Woah! It's me,"  he said with his hands held out in defense. It was Derek. Rayo's shoulders relaxed.

"Mind if I sit?"

Rayo gave a curt. She was taken aback at how he recovered so fast. He was supposed to have a hard time even lifting a finger with the amount of arsine they inhaled.

Derek gave her a packet of biscuits while he opened his own. Her stomach churned at the sight of food. She had totally forgotten about it amidst the chaos.

"You know, I might not be an expert but with the stream fueling water vapor here and the gas in the air, don't think the fog is going to clear up in at least the next one hour. You could easily get a fast shut-eye," Derek said looking at her.

"Thanks but no thanks. I'm good," Rayo replied.

"You don't look good though. If you're gonna go out there, you're gonna need all the energy you can get. Might as well rest up a bit. I can guard if you want. I might not be trained like you guys but you'll be surprised how loud I can shout," Derek said giving her a cordial smile but Rayo declined, suspicious of this sudden friendliness.

"How's your leg by the way?" Rayo asked to open a conversation.

"Good"

"Oh. Cool."

She took a good look at Derek before looking away at the stream. His eyes appeared really dark under the moonlight. Darker than black. Black eyes might not have been a beauty standard celebrated in stories and movies but when it came to masking emotions, nothing could even compare to it. She could never guess what was playing behind those orbs as easily as with the others and that always ticked her. Rayo sometimes wished her own were as inky as her soul but her's were russet brown.

"Not a big fan of the forest are you?" Derek said after a while. 

"Why would you say that?" Rayo asked masking her startled face. No one had ever noticed that before.

"It's just that you are looking at the trees like Xen looks at books," Derek tried explaining himself," like he wished he could burn them down but knew he shouldn't."

She gave out a dry chuckle. She wondered if she was giving him less credit by calling him the rook. His perception was really keen. He might even be the queen of her chessboard.

"Ever heard of the Yolk's land?" Rayo asked chewing on a dry biscuit.

"Yeah. Um.. isn't that the place where the war started over? For the ownership of it?"  Derek replied, surprised at the sudden change of topic.

"Yeah. It was a small island yes. But do you know how it got that name?"

Derek pursed his lips. He did not know.

Rayo did not know why she suddenly felt like sharing it but she had this eager urge to just putting it all out there. Just like that. Like someone needed to know. And she felt too spent to fight that impulse.

"It was previously called Deus terra before the war because it was abundant in everything one could need to sustain. Trees and animals were plenty and in peace. It knew nothing of the outside world.

One night though, some outsiders came riding some big metal birds and landed on the God's paradise or so the people said. All the villagers were called into the cyclone shelter in the middle of the forest. No one knew what was going on but the village chief called. So everyone had to go. But you know the funny part? No adults ever came out of it. At the break of dawn, all that was left were some children here and there. And since those swines had no interest in learning the name, they gave their own. They started calling it the Young Folk's land which of course with time shortened to Yolk's land," Rayo finished. She did not know why she was talking so much but she just felt like gurgling it all out.

"Wow really? But ..yoah..dense. But how do you know though? I mean this is the first time I'm hearing this backdrop."

"Because I was there? " Rayo said with a sideways glance like that was the most normal thing on the planet.

"All these for some oil mine. Damn!" Derek said, his voice heavy with remorse.

Rayo laughed. " I might have been a toddler then but I can assure you one thing. There was never any oil field on the islands. If anything came out of it that would be lots of limbs to feed the piranhas in the ocean and me hating the forests forever," she said taking another biscuit from the packet.

For a while, Derek could not say anything. He was never taught these facts in school and he knew no one was. Suddenly, he felt bad for ever opening his mouth.

"But I don't get it. Then what is it all for? I mean we have been taught in school that there was this huge oil mine there and the South and the North got into fights over it and that pulled the whirlpool of the third world war and-"

Rayo shrugged,  "I don't know. Must  be some bureaucratic cover-up theory."

Derek fell into silence once again.

"What is it?" Rayo said turning at him.

"I...huh?"

"You've been meaning to ask something for a while.  You're worried about what's going to happen once you guys return."

Derek looked like he was caught doing something embarrassing. He did not know he was so easy to read.

"Truth be told I don't know. You guys will be investigated, we'll be watching your every step and once we find you guilty for anything at all, that will be the end for you. But if you guys are innocent, I can promise you I'll personally make sure that no harm comes to you guys," Rayo said, her eyes fixed on him.

He was taken aback by such a blunt answer. "Thanks," he said with a genuine smile. For some reason, he felt a wave of reassurance wash over him knowing finally their endgame.

"HEYYA MATES! Whatcha two doing in the dark huh?" Lynx said wriggling his brows as he jumped on Derek from the back. He was all bright from his nap.

Rayo smacked his hand when tried sneaking out a biscuit from her.

"Eat your one."

"Bold of you to assume I haven't already. How cute! I gobbled it up 10 minutes into the trip," Lynx said flashing his brightest smile as he took one from Derek's hand. Derek held out the packet for more.

"See? Learn something from ma brother. Sharing is caring," Lynx said in between chomping like they had been best buddies for life. Rayo just scoffed. She got up and dusted off the sands. The rest were still fast asleep but the fog had shifted off. It was good to go.

"Hey! You sure I shouldn't go instead?" Lynx said, worried. Rayi looked tired.

"Nope. I'm best suited for it. You keep an eye out here. We need someone here as backup," Rayo retorted as she already started for the forest.

"Ay ay mate!"

Rayo started walking away. Now that she said those out loud, it felt really weird to her. Like she over-shared and it made her feel vulnerable which Rayo absolutely hated. Shaking her head, she started walking fast.

Feelings can wait. Liam shouldn't have to

The stench hit her nose again as she got deeper into the forest. She covered her nose with the mask as an image flashed in her mind from earlier.

His eyes were brown earlier this morning. Like mine!

Suddenly a dangerous notion peeked in her mind. She did not get the stench as long as she was with Derek. Not in the morning, neither earlier. He was not even showing any symptoms of arsine poisoning. It was almost as if there was an orb around him that kept the air free from arsine and that was impossible without manipulating the air. Adding that with the change in his iris, her breath hitched

Derek can manipulate air

He's a phantom, like us!