Chapter 10, Part 2 || Remorse, Grief and Fire

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- Kai's POV -

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My breath stopped. Phoenix's intensity faded, and he looked away.

I had the sense that every word yet to be spoken would have to count; I could see that Phoenix and Ember were shutting down, Phoenix covering his leg, Ember attempting to regain the hardness of his gaze that had broken when his brother was in danger. Kylie was not the smiling girl I met several days ago, but instead becoming detached. I had to ask what I needed to know before they all stopped deciding to answer.

"Why me?" I heard the slight fear that rang in my tone, and tried to ignore it, as well as the pounding of my heart.

Phoenix gave me a sad look. "Because you have powers. Why they mattered to us, I don't know, but - Kai, we do feel things. Little things, yes, but they still count. I know remorse, and fear, and anger and happiness. Ember and I chose to leave so that we could feel those things freely."

"How could you just leave? I - I don't understand."

Ember answered with a voice like obsidian; dark and heavy. "We didn't have a choice. Phoenix is right, we do feel things: one of them is immorality. Our kingdom is tight and nearly unbreakable, so we knew that the boy we were told to hunt down did nothing to - to deserve death at our hands. So we left one night, and changed forms so that we couldn't be found."

"Ember wanted to hide," Phoenix said, "but I wanted to kill my kin once we realised what they were doing. They murdered so many, so so many, children and parents and old folk, and I was human - I began to understand grief. I felt grief, felt it like blades. I wanted to kill my kin for what they made me feel, but Ember stopped me; instead, we decided for a compromise."

"We would watch over you," Ember continued, "and make sure that the reason of our betrayal could live."

Their words, I knew, meant nothing compared to what they would have been really feeling and experiencing, their true doubts and reasons and regrets; sometimes, though, words can only carry a part of the whole message.

I didn't know what to say. Someone's out to get me. "Who was ordering you?" I managed to make, eventually, with a small choke.

Ember, Kylie and Phoenix glanced at each other. "It doesn't matter," Ember said. "What matters is that their orders don't become reality. Call it spite, or duty or revenge or whatever, but there is no way I will let her win that battle."

The windows flashed. Thunder cracked overhead, louder than usual. Students screamed in shock.

Overwhelming heat suddenly seized me, and before I even registered my own movements, I was looking up at Phoenix, head dizzy and hot, chest burning.

"Kai! Wake up!" He was saying, purple eyes alight with concern. "What's wrong?"

I sat up slowly and groaned. "I'm not sure," I said, muscles tingling strangely. "There was a surge of some kind, and I - wait, did I knock myself out again?" I was distraught.

Phoenix looked on with no less worry. "Just for a few seconds," he said, and I internally sagged in relief. "But your eyes are blazing, Kai, more than usual. Are you sure you're okay?"

Notch, I hope. Lightning turned everything white again, and thunder roared terribly loud. More people were screaming. My chest's burning was becoming painful. "I think so."

Then I realised something; people were pushing forwards against the front of the building, towards the doors leading to the yard. The four of us were left laid along the back wall. "What's going on?" Kylie asked, curious as I was. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't think so," replied Ember, who stood up. I followed him, and Phoenix grabbed my ankle. "Be careful," he warned. I nodded, and he let go.

Ember and I shoved through the crowd of students, making our way to the front; the closer we got, the more panicked adults I could hear, which meant that something wasn't going well. Fearful curiosity crept into me, especially when the burning became more intense. I grimaced in pain.

We finally made it to one of the windows; when we looked through, though, we couldn't see anything but dark clouds, small violet lights, the shadowy movement of distant figures and the rain. But then lightning struck a jagged line across the sky, lighting up the landscape in a brief, stunning electrical display; and during that moment I knew what everyone had gathered around for. There was a student outside, with blue hair.

I turned away from the window and made my way to the doors. "Don't, Kai!" I heard Ember yell after me, but I didn't listen. Before I reached the exit, I ran into a tear-streaked Zoe, with Eve beside her, blue eyes struck with deep worry. She gave me a grim look. "She disappeared, Kai, and then she was outside. Xav's panicking, and Scott keeps threatening to go after her," she informed me, but I hardly listened. Stupid door, so crowded, I thought with distaste.

When I got there, Mr Kelman grabbed my shoulders and gently pushed me back. "Stay inside, Kai," he ordered. "The Defencement is going after her, it'll be okay."

The storm raged on, cracking overhead like a whip. Fire caught on the yard. A strike landed right beside where Iris was standing, back to us, so close and yet too far away, too far away.

I shoved Mr Kelman out of the way and ran. I screamed her name, over and over, but the rain was too dense, to thunderous, and my voice was drowned. The teachers must've lied; I saw no one between Iris and I.

I was only a dozen blocks away when lightning struck her.

I stumbled backwards in shock, landing in the wet grass, and then the burning in my lungs flared, it exploded within me, so hot I felt the blades of grass singe and curl up between my fingers.

But Iris was still standing. She opened her palms and silver energy pulsed out in bolts, shooting up into the sky, so tall and powerful I stared; they died in a split second, then erupted again, and I saw her footsteps continue into the haze where battle and Endermen lay.

"Rainbow! Iris, come back! Iris!" It was futile; if she heard me, she didn't show it. I got up and sprinted after her. Lightning whipped in front of me, blinding me for a moment, then retreated.

Bolts were appearing everywhere in the yard, strangely not lighting any fires but still as bright as the ones that come from the clouds. Iris's palms were still open, energy exploding spontaneously from them every few steps. I followed her on hurried feet; ahead, she finally stopped moving. I reached her, still calling her name, in an eventual heave, ripping her attention from the horizon by pulling her into a hug. She didn't react for several seconds, and then snapped back into her senses, wrapping her arms around my neck and curling her fingers into my shirt.

"Let's go back," I said, glancing at her eyes. They were an electric blue, glowing brightly.

Her voice was taunt and direct. "No."

I tugged on her arm and tried to pull her back anyway. "It's not safe here," I was saying, but she didn't follow. "Everyone's worried; please, Rainbow, we have to go. I -" I need your help with things, and I need you to leave this attack unhurt. I need you with me. "I have to get you back."

"No," she repeated, turning back into the now not-so-distant fighting. I could hear both human and End spawn screams. "I saw her, Kai. The one who killed my parents." Her eyes started to glow even brighter. "I'm going to kill her, Kai."

"You're acting out of your mind!" I pleaded. The fire in my chest started to burn even hungrier. "Please, Iris -"

"I have powers," she said, and it sounded like it was spoken through glass. "I have powers, I don't know why, but the lightning - I can create it, Kai. I can bend it. I'll kill her with it." A blade lay at her feet, lit silver with energy.

"No!" I wasn't going to budge, no matter how much she wanted to destroy; I couldn't let her face an army. Why couldn't she see the unreasonableness? "The Endermen will kill us, if we don't leave now!" Why couldn't she see?

But it was too late to turn around; Endermen in their dozens began to arrive around us, entrapping us in a circle of dark faces. Shit, I thought. We're going to die.

I remembered Mum's voice; Don't use your powers, Kai. Promise me. Swear that you won't use them unless you have to, unless your life depends on it.

I had promised, and wasn't intending to break it.

I took a breath, deep and uncertain, and let the fire inside me truly burn.

Flames poured out from my hands, uncontrollable, untameable, flaring with a strength so brutal that the grass around us died a black death. My lungs and eyes and hands were in pain, but it was a good pain; one that made me feel connected to the fire raring in explosive waves, allowed me to gather some control of their direction; I aimed at the Endermen. They burned away so fast that when I blocked the flames from escaping, and the fire returned inside me, it was still prepared to burn some more. I took a shatteringly cool breath, feeling my knees tremble. Iris, unscathed somehow, was on the ground, watching me with awe shining in her eyes; they were still alarmingly bright themselves, blazing electric blue instead of turquoise.

I offered her a hand to help her up. She took it without hesitation, her own grasp shaking slightly. I didn't bother explaining anything, though, because Endermen had noticed the fire and began to turn our way. "Let's go," I said, but she still shook her head, her stubbornness no less worn.

"I'll kill the Child," she told me, blue hair flaring whenever the clouds let lose a bolt. Her eyes had a silver ring around them instead of a gold one. "I'll kill her, I'll tear her soul out!"

She pulled her hand out of mine and picked her sword off of the ground. It was glowing impossibly silver. "The Child? Who's -"

We were suddenly choked in a purple mist so thick it made our breaths ache; when it dissipated, I saw two people standing only a few blocks ahead of us. One was a boy with hair the colour of empty galaxies, eyes pupil-less and violet; the other was a girl shorter than he was, perhaps seventeen, with silver hair tinted purple by the lights around her, and eyes the same shade. Her gaze was one purely made of triumph, arrogance hidden behind carefully held and intimidating elegance. She was terrifying.

Iris didn't say anything before she charged.

The woman flicked her wrist to the side, and purple energy threw Iris backwards - she slammed into the ground with a sickening crunch. I yelled her name and ran beside her, grass sticky with mud, all over my clothes; but I didn't care, resting Iris's head on my lap. She was trembling, and her skin was cold, but she was still breathing, still alive. I looked up at the woman in horror - what has she done to my best friend?

Her face betrayed no guilt, only irritancy. Her nose screwed up in distaste. "That's the McKinnon daughter?" She scoffed. "I was expecting something better than that. Maybe it will come from you, Fire Wielder." Her eyes fell on me; their purple was cruel and cold, so much unlike Phoenix's I found myself wishing he was here. His were so much warmer.

The boy beside the woman grimaced, and shot me an apologetic glance; yet he did not move. The woman looked over me wrathfully, then settled her expression into one of smugness. "Apparently not. At least the girl did more than glare."

"Who are you?" was my reply. I managed to stop my voice from trembling.

She smiled; it was evil. "The one who will raze the world," she said. "The Ender Dragon's Child."

She doesn't look like a dragon, I reflected stupidly. My mind was whirring, trying to figure out what was going on, who these people were, what they meant to do to us (nothing good, I knew) and how to escape.

Her eyes dropped to Iris again. "It's a shame I never got to know of her Special Energy," she tusked. "Machia tells me that her ancestor was a Storm Wielder. What a show that would have been."

I grew stark with realisation. She didn't notice Iris's lightning, I thought. She was too far away, she only saw the storm above us.

The Child smirked. "It's a shame," she said, "but not an inconvenience." She raised her hand, and a swirling mass of purple appeared in her palm.

"Don't fret, boy," she smiled. "Soon, everyone you know will join you in death." The purple erupted.

I shut my eyes, but it did not hit me; the woman was knocked aside and her power unfocused before it could reach us. I heard her hit the ground and growl, picking herself up almost immediately. To my relief and horror, it was Phoenix, blade in hand. He has sliced at her side.

Her grin was poison. "A traitor," she laughed, looking up at Phoenix, their eyes a matching shade of violet. "How pitiful. What made you leave?"

"You," Phoenix replied, voice and stance kept even. Stab her, I ushered, but he didn't move.

One of her silver eyebrows raised. "All I did was order you to put out a few lights. Was it too much to ask of you? Perhaps, then, it was a good thing you left. A weak Enderman is no Enderman at all."

"And yet you hide behind the Ender Dragon's glory and power while you pretend it's yours," he said, poising his blade over her head. He swung down hard, but she disappeared as the sword slammed against the ground. She reappeared behind him - I screamed a warning - but it was too late; she pressed a hand to his back and swarmed him in her evil light. He yelled out in pain, and I grabbed Iris's sword and charged at the woman; she dodged, but she released Phoenix. He crumbled to the ground, chest hardly moving. Blood started dropping from his leg again.

He muttered something, but I couldn't catch it; I thought it was something like "weren't being careful", but I didn't know. The Child was directly in front of me, now; she was shorter than I was, and thinner, with hallowed cheeks and sharp angles, but no less terrifying than any other Enderman; she was even more so.

"The Dragon gives them their life; I can take it back," she said, voice like venom, glancing down at Phoenix. "I am the Dragon's power. The son of the Fire Wielder makes no match for the energy of the End."

I gripped the sword tightly. "It's a shame I'm not just the son of a Fire Wielder," I spat, "I am one."

I dropped the sword, opened my hands and let the flames loose.

They hit her unexpectedly and fast, so fast she couldn't teleport away until the damage had been done. She hissed over the roar of the flames and shot out of reach; I saw her stagger a few hundred blocks away, a silhouette in the near-darkness. The boy still stood; the flames had hit him, but did not affected him. I stared at him in horrified bewilderment.

He gave a weak grin. "I'm dead, Kai," he said, and his words didn't make any sense in my brain. "I don't burn."

"You - You're dead?" I questioned, but he didn't answer, because someone kicked me onto the ground. The Child stood over me, brooding; but she couldn't do anything else because another girl knocked her aside. It was Kylie, with Ember right behind her.

I scrambled up to stand beside them. Kylie spat on the Child's face, and I saw her eyes light up in absolute fury at the insult. "You die now!" she declared, raising her hand in fiery anger; her blow of energy struck Kylie on the arm, and caused her to tumble backwards. She groaned, and when I touched her shoulder, I realised it was as cold as Iris's. Ember and I stood over her, blades raised.

"Another traitor," the child commented. "Oh, a pair of traitor brothers. Almost killed the blond, and now I'll finish the job with you. With all of you."

But something strange happened before she could; a violaceous streak hit her from the side and she fell to the ground. To my surprise, it had come from the boy, the one with black hair.

"She'll stay down for a minute, and then you'll stand no chance," he warned. "Leave, now. Take whoever you can with you." He walked over, leant down and touched a hand to Kylie's forehead. "She's gone," he said gravely. "She will be welcomed in the stars."

Ember froze on the spot. "It hit her arm," he said. "She's fine."

"She's dead, boy."

"She is alive."

The boy sighed. "Take her, then. Just go, quickly. Before she awakens. I'll try to withhold her for longer once she does, but I'm afraid that she controls me; her energy has given me life. I can't fight her."

I blinked at the boy; his eyes were unnerving, but somehow good in heart. "Who are you?" I asked, this time more passively.

His smile was soft. "Nobody, Kai. Just another ghost."

Then he turned away. "Her anger will be enough to wipe out the entire battlefield, but she's been hurt. Her troops will retire. Gather anyone you can see, and go, quick. Go."

"Thank you," I said, just as Iris woke up with a choking gasp. She glanced around in panic.

I pulled her up. "We have to go," I told her, and this time, she didn't disagree. Ember had Kylie on his right shoulder, and was struggling to hold Phoenix on his left. "I'll get him," I said, holding the blond's weight steadily. He was cold, like Iris had been, but alive.

Iris pointed to where an officer lay several blocks away. "I'll carry him, he's alive." I nodded. "Just be fast."

She ran over and picked him up; together we made our way back to the yard. Teachers were standing halfway, and they pulled us along so quickly we almost tripped. "You're all ridiculously stupid," Mr Hayes was saying. "You nearly got yourselves killed, all five of you." Iris gritted her teeth.

"Seems like they needed help," she said coldly. "Considering no one else was giving any."

"More troops were on their way," he barked. "You had no right to run off like that."

Iris shut her mouth, but it was only because I could see that the weight of the officer was bearing down on her.

When we reached the hall and I laid Phoenix down on a spot on the floor, Xav ran over to hug me. He wasn't usually the sort to get clingy, which meant he had been seriously worried. "You and Iris are total idiots," he said, and he sounded like he could have been crying. "I thought you were going to die, Kai. We were all so worried."

Eve came up behind him and put a hand on his back. "Do not do that again," she warned. Her voice was chipped. Xavier let go.

I nodded, and looked down at Phoenix. His eyelids were fluttering. Relief made my shoulders sag.

The teachers put us in an almost cleared classroom, and after some serious interrogation, let us be. Ember had Kylie in his arms and was hugging her to himself tightly. The officer lay in the corner; he was dying, we knew, of a wound that had probably pierced something vital. A few other injured, officers and students, were littered around; all were unconscious. Iris sat in the corner, head in her hands. I stayed beside Phoenix.

Ember started to sob.

His purple tears fell across onto Kylie's now-pale face, still as stone. The sound filled the room, and I gripped Phoenix's hand. It was becoming warm again.

You've saved me twice, now, I thought miserably. What have I done to pay you back? Gotten your friend killed?

Iris stirred and wandered to Ember, sitting down beside him. She placed a hand on Kylie's shoulder.

"I didn't realise she was human," she whispered.

Ember glared at her. "Why would you think she wouldn't be?"

She raised an eyebrow, but didn't smirk or smile. "You and your brother Endermen; and no, Kai didn't tell me. He didn't react when the Child taunted your betrayal, which meant someone had told him before. You. With the right eye, I think more people would know, too. It wasn't, uh, not obvious."

Ember dropped his gaze. "She was our only friend," he said, and another tear fell. "She was our sister. She - I - I can't believe she died, I can't believe - she always seemed so invincible -" He gritted his teeth and sobbed again. It was a terrible thing.

A soft, golden glow began to appear where Iris's hand touched Kylie's skin; it was dull first, then began to brighten with a force so intense Ember had to look away.

"What are you doing?" I asked, confused and curious and scared. "Iris?"

"I don't know," was her reply. "Kai, I don't know -"

Gold exploded from their connected touch like lightning from the clouds; it blinded all of us, but it was so warm; a few seconds later the overwhelming brightness subsided, shrinking back to a small glow and then to nothing at all. Iris's mouth was dropped open in surprise and awe and horror, and Ember stiffened with obvious alarm.

Kylie breathed.

Through the window, I saw a huge purple expanse spread across the yard, smothering and swallowing, but then it disappeared along with every Enderman that had once been looming too close. But I hardly took notice.

Kylie breathed again, and again; then she spoke:

"I was dead."

Iris looked at her hands and screamed.

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- An Unknown POV -

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The General could not physically harm him, to her frustration; threats flew by him as if he did not care for anything. Perhaps he didn't.

"You bastard," the General was saying. "You knew the boy was awakened, and you did not tell me."

"Instead I knocked you out," the Ghost replied, impudent. "I must say, I'm very glad with my choice of action."

She growled. "We'll get to that act of defiance later. First, tell me all you know of the girl. She still lives despite my attack and her human nature."

The Ghost smiled. "She is not just a girl," he said. "She is a Wielder."

"Are you meaning to tell me that she has awakened?"

"Are you meaning to tell me that you didn't see the lightning she bent?"

The General cursed. "Three awakened Wielders. This is your fault, Machia. You knew that both the boy and girl were in control of abilities, and withheld the information. I require an explanation."

He grinned even wider. "Was my knocking you out not enough to prove my loyalties? Would you prefer me to kill you, next time?"

Her gaze turned hard and cold. "You are done on this earth, Machia," she announced.

The smile on his face grew warmer. "Good. I've missed the sky."

She waved her hand, and slowly, the Ghost started to shimmer, his image becoming less and less clear.

"You will be beaten, Lillian. You have no power but your own hatred."

She turned away from him, and I saw her face; it was of contempt, of pain, of a long-held desperation to destroy all that destroyed her. "If my hatred is my power, then it will be enough," she said.

The Ghost disappeared.

Another took his place; her hair was as black as the boy's had been, her eyes the same purple that the End's magic brought to ghosts. She watched the General with a look that was cool and calculating.

"I figured it would have been Herobrine you'd have summoned next," she said, "not some unimportant girl."

The General glared at her, eyes hard and ruthless. "You will aid my task. You will help me destroy what is left of the Wielders."

The new ghost laughed. "You want to wipe out the Wielders, and then you bring forth one from the dead? Real smart, Child." She said Child as if it were an insult, not an honourable title.

Scowling, the General moved forward to stand face to face with the ghost, and I realised that both girls looked similar. "Do not taunt me," the General said, voice hard as rock. "Do not degrade me. I will make your time on this world a misery."

The Ghost only raised her chin. "I will not help you destroy any Wielders. I will not destroy anymore; death has brought me that wish. It was my only relief when I brought a palace upon my own head. And, of course, that your brother got to die. That was pretty nice, too."

Bristling with hate and beginning to lose her patience, the General raised her hand. "If you offer me your intelligence, I will make you a promise; I will bring you back from the stars permanently, after the death of the Overworld."

Laughing even harder than before, the Ghost smirked. "Wow, an excellent deal. You've totally got me."

The General was beyond angry now; rage made her hands tremble. "You have tried me too long," she said. "Begone."

The girl dissipated almost as quickly as she'd arrived.

It was not my place to speak, but I felt the necessity of my plead. "Perhaps you should consider bringing forth your brother, General." Thankfully, she didn't flare up at his mention. "He will have much information to offer us."

She shook her head. "He would never confess a word, not to me. Not to Lillian."

She turned to wander into the Dragon's Cave. I knew she would not return for several hours; she seldom went there unless she needed to. She was still a girl, I reflected. Immortal, but a girl all the same.

A girl with no ability to give mercy.

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- from the ragged pieces of a girl's memory -

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Tall, dark men offered their hands to her whilst she waited for her brothers' non-coming return. Dried tears prickled her face, new ones made her eyes burn, but she did not move to take the hands.

They peered down at her with unholy gazes of bright violet; her parents had told her of the scary monsters who walked alone in the night, who were as deadly as a sword, only more evil. She didn't want to touch them.

And yet, the words her brothers left her with echoed in her mind; We'll come back, maybe, Steve had laughed, and then Alex had joked that she would probably miss Christmas morning. Their taunting had left her in trembles.

Hours passed, cold winds blew, but they did not return to help her. The walls of the pit loomed over her like she was in a prison; which, she supposed, she was. She hated it, and she hated her brothers. Shadows crept along the walls like demons, and she kept hearing the distant groaning of zombies and the shallow rattle of skeletons. You'll be killed for sure, Steve had smiled laughingly after they pushed her into the deep dark hole. Imagine that!

She had imagined it. Over and over and over.

The men who offered her their hands were doing more than her brothers had ever done; Steve used to be kind to her, when she was very young, but then Alex had come to them as an orphan and Steve had a boy his age to hang around with. The sister had been left forgotten, only to be used as a joke when it suited her brothers and their games.

She hated them. She hated them.

So she took the mens' hands.

They had taken her to a new world with a sky of darkness and towering pillars of a dark metal she'd never seen before. Her ten-year-old face was still tear-streaked, but she did not cry as the black men led her to the mouth of a cave carved from a strange yellow stone.

Inside lay something Steve had once told her about; a dragon. With big black wings and purple eyes. She watched it in amazement.

It invited her into the cave with a sweep of its head, and that night, for the first time, leaning against the cool scales of the giant beast, curled up in its tail, she felt as though she had a place.

That place was later explained to her; she would be the human who would carry the dragon's powers to the Overworld, where she would capture the Dark Blade. When she asked why it needed a sword, the dragon had replied that it was made with energy so powerful and raw that it would be able to set him free.

Smiling, the girl said she would love to bring her dragon the blade it required. After all, she wanted his chains to be cut. The Ender Dragon who could fly was no match to the world that had cast her out.

The Ender Dragon who could fly would lead her revenge.

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Wow, these updates are just shooting out, aren't they? I made a last minute change to make it a part two thing, mainly because they seemed so similar.

Uh oh, Iris brought back the dead!! But what are the technicalities?? You will all soon find out.

Also, a question to my American readers: I just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and I heard somewhere that some American schools have apparently banned it from the shelves. Is it true??? Why????

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QOTC: Favourite pizza flavour?

(aotc: aussie pizza is bae.)

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Thanks for reading, y'all! I'd appreciate votes, too!!

- Jazz

Bonus: I gave in. Hope you enjoyed a little bit of pointless Clare.