Water Shaper (World Aflame)

by Messenger, Jon

  “Yes,” Abraxas said, savoring the infighting. “Fight amongst yourselves. Let that fear and anger just pour out of you. I love the smell of it in the air.”

  Xander looked at Wilkes sternly. “You’re right. Water is the only choice but not the way you’re thinking. You trusted me before. Please, do it again, just for a little while longer.”

  Wilkes stared at Xander for a long moment before stepping aside. Xander nodded his appreciation before stepping past the group and facing Abraxas.

  The General stopped sniffing the air excitedly and turned his gaze to the Wind Warrior. Abraxas’ eyes smoldered with flames as he watched Xander stand defiantly, with his hands on his hips.

  “What’s this?” he said. “You’re done fighting with each other already? You want to fight me instead?” He tilted his head back and laughed derisively. “You don’t stand a chance against me, boy.”

  “I’ve noticed you’ve learned some new tricks since we met last. Well, so have I.”

  Xander’s eyes quickly shifted to blue. The blue glow sparkled against his soot-covered cheeks and dingy hair.

  “Ah, there it is,” Abraxas mocked. “The power of the Water Elemental. But you don’t really have her power, do you? Of course not. She made you a warrior. You’re nothing more than a peon. You’re a child sitting in a church pew challenging God himself to a fight. I’ll crush you, no matter how many shiny new powers you have.”

  Sensing a fight brewing, the Fire Warriors crowded closer. Wilkes tightened his grip on his rifle as he scanned their hungry faces.

  “Maybe you will, Abraxas,” Xander said. “Maybe I’ll pick a fight with you, and you’ll annihilate me. Maybe you’ll kill everyone else with me, too.”

  Xander took a step forward, the intensity in his eyes increasing with every brave step. “Or maybe, just maybe, I’ll surprise you. Maybe I’ll do something so unexpected that you’ll be the one broken and bleeding when all this is said and done.”

  Abraxas laughed again. He turned to the Fire Warriors, and his laughter spread like a contagion. Their laughter was a roar surrounding the group like a suffocating blanket.

  Sean furrowed his brow as another noise crept through the thunderous sound of laughter. He heard a trickling, like a faucet left on and running a thin stream of water into a sink. Confusedly, he glanced over the railing beside him to the Thames below. His eyes widened in surprise and he snapped his head forward again, hoping that the Fire Warriors didn’t notice his random gaze.

  Below the London Bridge, the Thames River was receding. The water level dropped slowly, revealing the mud and heavier debris that had poured into the river during the city’s siege. Fish that had survived the choking ash floundered on the muddy banks, gasping for air as the water disappeared from the riverbed.

  “Laugh all you want,” Xander said. “There’s a part of you, deep inside, that’s afraid I just might be right.”

  The laughter died away as Abraxas scowled at the overly confident man. “You’re only alive right now because I’ve let you live. I think, perhaps, you’ve overstayed your welcome.”

  Sean stole a glance to the far side of the bridge and saw the rest of the river run dry. He didn’t know what it meant, but he knew it was Xander’s doing. His throat felt suddenly parched, as though even the moisture from his mouth had been pulled away.

  Xander’s mouth felt equally parched, though he knew his was from stress and worry. Wilkes had been right that Xander had never killed a Fire Warrior before. Even face to face with the demented Fire Warrior General, he wasn’t sure the first emotion he felt was a desire to kill the man. But Wilkes words stuck with him. If he wanted any of his friends to survive, he’d have to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice of his morality. He’d have to be willing to kill.

  The flames sheathed Abraxas’ arms, glowing first red, then orange, then yellow, before finally igniting a brilliant white. He snarled, revealing his sharpened teeth. His dark tattoos twisted as he furrowed his brow in anger.

  A new sound filled the air; a mixture of thunder and crashing waves. Abraxas faltered as he stared at Xander in confusion. He turned his head to the side, and his eyes shot open in disbelief.

  “I told you I’ve learned a few new tricks, too,” Xander said.

  A tidal wave rushed down the Thames’ riverbed, the entire force of the river having been released all at once. The wave towered over the bridge and it cast a long shadow over the small group and the one hundred Fire Warriors.

  Abraxas looked at the solid wall of water rushing toward then and swallowed hard. The wave slammed into a bridge further upstream without faltering. In the depths of the translucent water, he could see logs and other rubble carried along in its wake.

  “Xander?” Jessica asked. She clung to Sean nervously.

  He didn’t reply; his eyes were completely consumed by the blue glow as he channeled the full might of the Water Elemental.

  “No,” Abraxas said as he ignited his burning wings, his revenge temporarily forgotten. He jumped onto the railing and leapt off, in an attempt to outrun the churning surge.

  The wave grew quickly closer. It was an unstoppable force of nature that was set to obliterate the wide bridge on which they stood.

  The Fire Warriors saw their leader turn and flee, and they ran toward opposite ends of the bridge. Though they fled, they weren’t nearly fast enough to escape the wrath of the wave.

  “Xander!” Jessica yelled as the wave reached the London Bridge. Xander threw his arms out wide, and the wave parted down its middle. The two halves of it washed over the bridge, slamming into the two groups of Fire Warriors as they tried to escape. Their respective cries were drowned out by the thunderous crash. They were lifted from their feet and pulled into the churning depths of riptides and swirling madness just beneath the tidal wave’s surface. As one, the entire Fire Warrior ambush was washed over the side of the bridge and carried downstream.

  Abraxas was barely clear of the bridge when the water washed over and around it. He pulled steeply upward in an attempt to escape, but the wave struck his legs and sent him spinning wildly away. He disappeared into the nearby buildings in a crash of glass and steel.

  In the middle of the bridge, the small group of survivors cringed, bracing themselves for a ravaging wave that never struck them. Water from the breaking waves sloshed across the surface of the bridge, soaking their boots and pants legs, but the wave itself bypassed them completely.

  They turned slowly to Xander as his eyes returned to normal. He staggered momentarily as the first signs of exhaustion settled over him but Wilkes was quickly at his side, supporting his weight.

  “I should have never doubted you,” the Brit said.

  Xander didn’t reply. He looked over the edge of the now-twisted railing and watched the water settle back into its riverbed. It churned at first as it tried to settle back into its regular flow. Eventually, the surface resumed its regular, gentle, downstream flow.

  Wood floated back to the surface as more debris flushed from upstream. Amidst the broken wood, he saw pale-skinned bodies emerge from the frigid depths. The Fire Warriors bobbed back up to the surface, floating facedown as the river carried them away.

  Xander felt nauseated, watching the results of his tidal wave. There had been a line he hadn’t previously crossed. So much of his previous life had been stripped away with the loss of his family and the gaining of not just the wind power, but the water as well. Not killing the Fire Warriors was his last connection to his humanity. He felt as though a part of his soul had been torn away, no matter how necessary the killing had been.

  Sean looked sadly at his friend. “It was either us or—”

  “Don’t you dare,” Xander snapped. “Don’t feed me some textbook answer about how I’m supposed to be okay with this.”

  Wilkes placed his hand on Xander’s shoulder. The Wind Warrior tried to shake off his hand, but Wilkes tightened his grip. Slowly, Xander turned to the Brit.

  “I’m not going
to feed you any rubbish,” he said. “I’m just going to tell you that Abraxas didn’t get caught in the wave. He’ll be back. We need to go.”

  Xander looked around the relieved expressions of his friends. Without a reply, he drew a sharp breeze over the bridge. The wind lifted the group from their perch and carried them up into the air.

  They passed quickly over London as they picked up speed. Xander’s eyes barely noticed the rest of the burning city; his eyes remained fixated on the Thames until they finally gained enough elevation to pass through the smoke cloud.

  When Los Angeles was burning brightly across its full length, the Fire Elemental swooped back toward the skyscraper it had established as its throne room. The dragon didn’t turn its head and scan the streets below; they were filled with its Fire Warriors and now devoid of most of the human resistance. It focused solely on the tower and being done with the first part of its conquest.

  As it approached the balcony protruding from the penthouse’s bay windows, its body began to shimmer and morph. The long claws of its scaled hands receded until they became dirty fingernails. The tail faded completely, leaving no semblance of it behind. The red scales turned alabaster and were absorbed into Sammy’s porcelain skin. Even the spiked ridge on its back became flowing blond locks. By the time its feet alighted on the balcony, only the wings remained, stretching widely from its back. With its feet comfortably on solid ground, the wings, too, disappeared. Standing before the shattered windows was a dirty-faced, naked, blond woman who held none of the intimidation of the monster it had been moments before. Only its smoldering, red eyes gave any indication the woman was more than she appeared.

  She stepped over the broken glass once more. The shards cut into her feet, but the wounds healed almost as quickly as they appeared.

  Within the warm interior of the building, the room was dark. The power had been out in the city since the assault began and only the natural sunlight illuminated the open room beyond. Despite the darkness, the Elemental saw perfectly fine. The room was cast in conflicting shades of blue and red. Standing in the middle of the room—the only red in the otherwise cool interior—was General Kobal, who bowed deeply as he was recognized.

  “I assume the war has gone well?” he asked. Even bowing, the man was nearly as tall as Sammy’s shorter frame.

  “The war is just beginning,” the Elemental corrected. “However, you are correct that the battle for Los Angeles has come to its inevitable close.”

  Kobal nodded as he stood to his full stature. He walked over to the Elemental’s side and opened a robe he held in his large hands. The Fire Elemental looked down at its nudity before slipping its arms into the sleeves of the plush robe.

  Sammy looked at the man and grimaced. Kobal was yet another in a long line of Fire Warriors who took pleasure in the thought of eliminating humanity—of fulfilling their destiny by burning the world of man back down to the earth. Warriors like Abraxas and Kobal didn’t care about the humans they were killing. They didn’t realize that they had lives and families. No, Sammy corrected herself, they did know. They just didn’t care.

  She had just witnessed the Fire Elemental end hundreds, if not thousands of lives. It made her feel sick.

  “And the elusive Wind Warrior?” Kobal asked. “Is he also dead now?”

  Sammy could sense the Elemental’s hesitation and knew exactly why. When any other Wind Warrior had been killed, the world had nearly torn itself apart in mourning. The ground had shaken, volcanoes had erupted, and tsunamis poured over the coastline. The deaths of Robert, Bart, and Xander’s grandfather had been strong enough that the western side of Los Angeles was already partially submerged in the ocean.

  During their battles in Los Angeles, however, there hadn’t been a single indication that anything was amiss. Sammy somehow doubted the world would ignore Xander’s passing.

  “I intend to find out shortly,” the Elemental replied curtly. “Return to your men, General. Claim this city as our stronghold and prepare your warriors to march toward the next city.”

  Kobal placed a fist on his chest in salute. He spun on his heel and walked out of the penthouse. Sammy waited until she could no longer hear his booted feet clicking on the tiled hallway floor before she allowed herself to exhale.

  “General Abraxas failed you,” Sammy said bluntly. “You know as well as I do that this city would have broken in two if Xander had actually been killed.”

  The Elemental scowled but didn’t reply. Sammy wished she could return to the mirror and talk to the Elemental face to face. Though she could sense the creature’s displeasure, she longed to see the confusion and disappointment cast in its expression.

  Without a reply, the Elemental stretched its consciousness across the space between Los Angeles and London. In Sammy’s mind, she could hear the Elemental’s whisper to Abraxas on the far end.

  “General Abraxas,” it said.

  Sammy could immediately sense the barely bridled rage at what the Elemental found on the far end. Curious, Sammy hijacked the communication and rode it until her vision merged with that of the giant orb hovering over London.

  The eye hovered above the Thames, staring down at a partially collapsed building. It didn’t look like one that had been ruined by fire, nor had it collapsed uniformly like she would have expected if it had fallen in an earthquake. Only the upper corner of the building had shattered and much of the building’s interior lay in rubble, confined within its four walls.

  “General Abraxas. Answer me!”

  “Are you sure you’re in the right place?” Sammy mocked. “Because it doesn’t look like he’s in any condition to answer you right now.”

  Infuriated, the Elemental severed the connection and both their consciousnesses raced back to Sammy’s body in Los Angeles. The Elemental staggered as it returned to the body, its anger threatening to burn up even Sammy’s specially created figure. It stormed over to one of the upright bookcases and grabbed its edge, yanking the whole thing from where it had been affixed to the wall. Books scattered across the hardwood floor as the wooden bookcase shattered on the ground.

  “I’m going to go out on a limb and assume Abraxas failed you,” Sammy chided.

  “Silence,” it hissed.

  “That means that Xander defeated Abraxas and escaped. Again.”

  “Be quiet.”

  The Elemental stormed across the room, looking for an escape from the incessant nagging within its mind. Sammy smiled to herself, knowing there was nowhere it could go that she couldn’t follow.

  “Abraxas is more than likely dead. It’s only a matter of time before Xander comes for you, too. He’ll go get the Water Elemental’s power and then go find the Earth Elemental. And in the end, he’s going to hunt you down and make you extinct like the dinosaur you are.”

  “That’s enough from you,” the Elemental growled. “You won’t speak again unless I allow it.”

  Sammy felt like iron bars slammed down over her, clamping around her wrists and ankles. They dragged her away from the perfect vision of being merged with the Elemental, as though her consciousness were being suppressed. Sammy struggled against her bonds but knew she was wasting her energy.

  Though surely the Elemental had intended to completely eradicate Sammy’s awareness, it wasn’t quite as successful as it would have hoped. The iron manacles didn’t drag her far from the forefront of the Elemental’s mind. She could still see through its eyes, though it seemed like the vision was at the far end of a dark tunnel rather than feeling united with it like she had been.

  She screamed out; it was nothing intelligible, just a release of frustration. The Fire Elemental didn’t flinch at the sound. Sammy doubted it could hear her at all.

  Sammy frowned and stopped struggling against the manacles. Deep down, she knew she was to blame for her current predicament. The Elemental hadn’t had the ability to do this previously, or else it surely would have done so long before now. Sammy was trapped because she goaded the Elemental enough tha
t it was able to use its anger against her. It was a blunt hammer trying to perform delicate surgery, but it was effective for the Elemental nonetheless.

  Though she should have been frustrated, Sammy was glad not to share the homicidal thoughts of the Elemental for a while. She relaxed against her restraints and watched through the Elementals’ distant vision.

  “I really hope you’re still okay,” Sammy whispered, hoping that somewhere Xander could hear her plea.

  They soared over the English Channel in complete silence. When they’d flown together before, Sean and Jessica were always hovering close to Xander’s hip. This time, they were nearly two arms’ lengths behind him, as though he were isolating himself from them. They exchanged concerned looks but said nothing.

  Wilkes, Tamara, and Brandon flew with a combination of wonder and paralyzing fear as the Channel rushed by beneath them. They huddled together, clinging to one another as though letting go would cause them to plummet from the sky.

  “Xander,” Jessica said. Within the bubble of air, there was little noise from the gusting wind. “Xander, can we talk about this?”

  The wind suddenly billowed over them, roaring deafeningly in their ears until they couldn’t hear their own words. Jessica and Sean flinched at the noise, which died away as quickly as it had appeared.

  The few other times they’d tried to speak to Xander and make sure he was okay, a similar and inexplicably loud roar of wind appeared, stealing away their words. Jessica frowned but got the hint to stop trying to ask.

  Sean tilted his head backward and enjoyed the sunshine. It had been a drastic transition, flying from the smoky cloud that hung over London to the countryside, which had just the more traditional gloomy English sky. It wasn’t until they flew out over the Channel that the sky started clearing, and the sun finally found purchase.