Air stared in utter disbelief that she stared at an entire island's worth of rock collapse into the ocean, sending mental shockwaves to the elementals that were related to the incident. From a distance, it was a small tap inside her skull, but staring at it actually occurring was like someone pounding sheets of metal in her head.

What was going on?

The cliff seemed shaky under her feet. The waves crashed against the rocky walls, the violent breakers resonating in her ears. She could feel the frustration of the ocean as it attempted to accommodate the abrupt pieces of foreign substance. To the naked eye, the island was invisible and so was the aftermath it caused. But to specific elementals such as Air? They were like Api and Angin crashing into her room blowing airhorns at three a.m..

Should she investigate? She was originally taking a stroll, but then she noticed some abnormal elemental activity around this area. Angin and Daun were out somewhere and Api was buried in hundreds of unsigned paperwork. Tanah had went incognito after that robot attack, and she decided to take her chance.

Head craning, she studied the area to ensure that there were no witnesses. Just because she had the element of ice isn't the equivalent of the term "put the corpse on ice 'till I get there". She would never harm anyone. It was more of Api's thing.

Yeah. Whatever she's about to do might get her dragged into whatever situation she would rather not be included, but it may be their only chance to find Tanah and Petir. She could sleep it off, but she knew if Api never got an answer, he'll never live it down.

She stepped back from the cliff. Intaking a deep breath, her legs broke out into a sprint towards the ocean, and her feet left the solid ground as she dived into the sapphire blue below. As if she was phasing through a portal, her body morphed into her elemental form head-to-toe as she entered the water.

Propelling herself using the water, she sped off towards the destination of the fallen island-like debris. She shot forwards like a dart, dodging the occasional school of fish and garbage.

As she was halfway through, her eyes fell on a moving figure by the rocks. It was too large to be a fish, but too small for any aquamarine carnivores. Instead, the being resembled a human.

Eyebrow arching and her hair hovering by her face, she summoned her signature bow and approached the stone warily, the crystallization of an arrow forming in her bowstring in the water.

She pulled the bowstring back, careful to level the weapon below her chest, but sufficiently agile to attack any incoming hostile behaviour. Expecting it to attack her as she confronts it, her expectations were taken on a trip down the roller coaster people deem as plot twists as Thorn bounces out instead, clusters of seaweed tucked under her crimson cap as if she'd been camping here for decades.

After recovering from a heart attack, Ais realized that Thorn was also underwater, and not drowning. It was either this was Thorn's ghost or they were all dead.

"You're breathing underwater?" Ais quizzed. "But your element—"

Thorn nodded. "Yeah. I can tie my systems with another plant temporarily. If it doesn't die for some random reason, I can survive just fine in any environment." She paused. "Oh, yeah. Angin's here too. He's down there somewhere strangling an eel that snatched his cap."

* * *

Cue the angry teenager launching himself everywhere with the power of anime. Cue the eel that just wants a shiny thing to play with, which in this case, a white cap.

Ais and Thorn hovered over to his rampage, with the ice elemental holding a familiar white cap in her hand. She handed the accessory to Thorn and nocked her bow, aiming at the runaway eel. As she fired her ice arrow, the eel was shot indefinitely, encasing its tail in a cluster of ice that would melt eventually. Taufan propelled forward and snatched the cap, cheering in victory.

"That's not your cap," Ais deadpanned.

Taufan's cheery expression froze. "What? Our caps all share similar designs. If this isn't—" He flipped the cap's design up for him to see. It was difficult, due to the dark of the sea, but he managed to catch engravings and a crest that did not belong to him. It belonged to someone else.

His heart nearly came to a stop. Thorn and Ais hovered over to examine the design, which he showed no intent of unfreezing from his shock any time soon. One glance at the unlit design and it was no questioning who this accessory belonged to.

"He's supposed to be in that black hole." Thorn's voice was barely audible. "No. He's dead. He's not coming back. Just like Petir."

Ais frowned, unable to access the situation. They saw Petir alive and well. Thorn was right next to her. What was she saying?

Trembling, Angin looked up to his sister, paler than ever. "I—I told you—"

"NO!" Thorn cried. "He's not coming back! They're not coming back! I don't care what you tell me—they're dead, Angin! They're dead!"

"Maybe this came off during the explosion," Ais interjects, trying to play the voice of reason. "But Petir is alive. We destroyed Halilintar. That shockwave earlier—didn't you feel it?"

Thorn looked up to her, emerald eyes scared and desperately in need for a sense of belonging and comfort. Taufan handed her the cap, the only memorial of her fallen best friend.

Warily, she laced her fingers on the cap's dimmed beak. Tracing her fingertips on the fabric, which seemed so fragile, unlike the demeanour three years ago, where she'd seen him in action in person. Tears brimmed her eyes, but they melted into the ocean as soon as they escaped.

Ais and Taufan glanced at each other, their expressions equally exhausted. Seeing that the younger of the three needed some time alone, they paddled aside and tried not to let their volume reach to Thorn's hearing. Unfortunately, their voices were amplified due to the density of water.

"Come on," Ais said, turning to Taufan. "Speaking of which, how are you breathing underwater?"

The wind manipulator scratched his nose. "Element of air, remember? My respiratory organs allow me to extract oxygen around the area."

"Defies all sense of physics and biology but since I can shoot ice and merge with my brother I'll say it's logical," Ais murmured, crossing her arms. "I'm here to investigate that island. What are you two doing here?"

"Same as you, I suppose."

"Do you have any leads on what happened?"

"Not much. From what I can tell, only we can see it collapsing." Taufan held his chin in deep thought. "Something that has to do with elemental powers."

Ais looked down. None of this made sense. Then again, they had aliens who managed to programme one of their own and separate them from their physical bodies and make them their individual embodiments. One of them could dive into a volcano and ask for a chocolate shake to go with it. Everything that could go wrong went wrong and everything wrong became worse. There's no two ways to it.

"You stay here with Daun," Ais continued. "I'm going to look ahead."

The aerokinetic nodded in agreement.

Ais took off to the scene of the destruction, where it had settled down long before their conversation. After a while, the water around her grew murky with sand and dirt, her vision slowly obscured by the debris. She manipulated the water to clear her vision, but it was doing nothing.

After nearly running into a rock face first, she decided to walk instead of roaming around aimlessly. She was only able to glimpse through small illuminations due to the residue of whatever was in that island. Destroyed machines and mechanisms, all flickering in and out of life.

She was careful avoid anything that seemed dangerous or life-threatening. Occasionally she would be met with huge pieces of debris that she would not be able to go around, and she would lift it with her aquamanipulation and place it somewhere else.

The area was silent, almost too quiet. Nothing here solved the questions regarding the origins of the debris. Was it another aliens' works? Was it related to that android attack?

A rumble erupted from the debris next to her. She whirled around, and noticed a pile of metal and rocks were trembling slightly. Keeping her guard up, she hovered towards the area, careful to maintain her composure. From what she could deduce, whoever's trapped in there might not be mortal. The water pressure should have crushed it by now. Even if it managed to create an airspace below, the metal and rocks should have crumpled from the sheer pressure alone.

She wasn't sure of her next move. Silently, she studied the pile of debris. She sensed that there was indeed water inside, which meant whatever's trapped was holding up against the water pressure, which was an admirable feat, which meant it was bench pressing thousands of tons.

Using her abilities, she lifted the rocks and metal sheets that were enclosing it like a lid. As soon as there was a peek, a burst of red light emerged from the small space, followed by a cloud of blood. Human blood.

Startled, Ais leered closer to inspect the being. What she saw not only confirmed Taufan's theory, but also solved the bugging question in their minds.

Dying brown eyes met frost blue. Petir's eyes were half-lidded, but she managed to meet Ais's gaze. Before Ais could react, the electrical elemental's eyes closed, red electricity lacing her right wrist momentarily before flickering out.

* * *

Petir's condition was worse than she had ever imagined. There were gashes everywhere on her body, her clothes ripped and bloodied. Her bones seemed to be broken as well, though as Ais had freed her, her powers started to heal her as they speak.

Despite all of that, her hands never let go of a golden device that was shaped like an arm band.

Ais veiled Petir's body in a thin layer of oxygen, allowing her to breathe. She carried her body bridal-style with next to no effort thanks to the water, and rushed towards her friends' side.

Their eyes widened as they caught sight of her.

"We have to get her to a hospital," Ais said, mind racing.

Swallowing, Taufan and Thorn nodded, their eyes reflecting the dead ass truth.