Chapter 4: Go with the Flow

Rain was pouring at Area 5. However, Rishuv and Kylie were outside, standing face to face with a distance apart. They already started their waterbending training. Kylie didn't manage to get blue fire yet but Peter would train with her later. Her favorite color was blue so she really wanted to master blue fire. Rishuv explained the spiritual part of waterbending. Kylie followed his instructions and meditated with him. Once she had the mindset, she was able to make a force field to block the rain.

"Simple," she said.

"Good. Now gather the raindrops to form a stream to attack. Follow my moves." Rishuv performed tai chi moves to demonstrate. Kylie did exactly what he did. She thought they were really calming. It was like the water stream and her planned moves synchronized.

After the training ended, Kylie suggested on flying with Rishuv. "Hey, do you want to take a break and fly around the city with me?"

"Sure, you almost mastered waterbending already. Once you know icebending, then you completely mastered it."

Before they left, Kylie changed into her Guardian Princess outfit in case anything happened while they were flying. They got to know each other more through talking about their interests. They were really nice to each other as well and became good friends instantly. Then Kylie and Rishuv heard something in their minds. KK was trying to communicate to them

"You guys! There are fire dragons 10 miles north from you. They're going after the water guardian, Dennis. Hurry!" he shouted.

Kylie and Rishuv had to cover their ears from his loud voice, "Alright, alright! Don't need to scream it. We're on it," Kylie replied. They flew as fast as they can until they reached a town that seemed to be in flames. There were 5 huge dragons hovering over it, burning everything.

"Hope we're not too late!" Kylie said worryingly.

"Seems a bit of overkill to just get one person with this many dragons. But we do only need two more for your team. Who knows where Jen's first team went though. I bet Phobos doesn't even know either."

"Enough talking! Let's go!" Kylie changed the weather to heavy rain. With the water coming from the sky, she used a stream of it to whip the dragons. It seemed to get their attention but no damage occurred. Kylie was shocked as the dragons faced her, preparing to breathe fire on her. She formed a water shield around her but the fire was strong enough to gradually get pass it. She was losing strength until she felt the fire weakening. She looked at what was happening and saw someone in front of her shield. He was sucking up the fire and even into his mouth. When the dragons stopped, they stared angrily at him. The guy wiped his mouth and said, "I learned a new technique as a fire guardian. And it's able to suck in fire as more energy to defeat dragons like you. It's part of fire dragon slayer magic."

Once Kylie saw clearly of whom he was and heard his voice, she exclaimed, "Peter!"

"Nice to fight alongside with you again, sweetie. I'll take care of them. You can go find Dennis."

She nodded, "Alright." She flew down where Rishuv was helping the citizens get out safely. The rain put out all the fire but the place was still a mess. She didn't if she could find Dennis at all. Then out in the distance she saw a shop that was still intact. It was a video game store. She went in and found Dennis and Giru!

"Dennis! Giru!"

"Kylie-chan! You're here!" He flew right to Kylie's arms.

"You're all safe."

"I used all my strength to put a force field here to protect Dennis."

"Nice job!"

Dennis stood up and said, "Giru gave me my memory back already too. Nice to see you again, Kylie. And welcome to my video game store! "

Kylie smiled, "You too. This is your store! Nice!"

"Thanks. I make and sell video games."

"Sweet! Back to business, we have the water source outside so let's help Peter fight those dragons."

"Awesome! Water Unite!" Dennis transformed to his battle outfit. "Really missed these clothes. Let's go!"

Before they went out, Kylie told Giru, "Stay here Giru and regain your energy." He agreed and stayed put.

When the two got out of the store, the dragons immediately detected Dennis and aimed towards him. He dodged away from the fire and waterbended at them. There were three dragons left from Peter's hard work. Each one took on a dragon. Rishuv was continuing to escort the people away from town. But he did notice that Dennis was back.

Kylie wanted to icebend because it would damage the dragon more. Even though she didn't know the technique, she tried to connect it with air. Cold air can freeze the water. So she tried to put cold air into the water and it started to turn to ice. 'Yes!' she said to herself. She even created a sword made of ice. She charged it up with quintessence as well to boost the damage it could make.

When she raised the sword up, she shouted, "For the Gatekeeper Guardians!" She flew straight to the dragon that wasn't paying attention to her in the first place. She swung the sword at least 10 times at it, each making a cut on it. The dragon roared in pain. Finally, she used all her power in energy form onto the sword. With a top to bottom swing, the sword cut off the dragon's head. Kylie helped finish off the other two dragons as well. Peter and Dennis were so surprised. After the striking the last dragon, Kylie felt weak and stopped flying. The sword disappeared, and it stopped raining but still with clouds covering the sky. Peter caught her in midair.

"Looks like you're the dragon slayer here," he joked.

Kylie had her eyes barely opened but she smiled at him. Rishuv and Dennis met up with them.

Dennis asked, "Are you okay? You were amazing!"

"I don't think you need any more waterbending training anymore," Rishuv said and laughed. Giru caught up with them and hovered over her.

"Hey Giru. I'm fine. Just need some rest," Kylie replied then falling asleep. Peter, as a healer, gave her some energy as they flew back home.

Jen didn't take too much time to master firebending. Or at least get to her maximum power with the poison in her. So she was ready for the next element in the cycle, water.

"Alright, I'm ready for some waterbending! This time I won't have a trouble on it like last time." Jen exclaimed. She took Kenny to a nearby lake for a water source. But he had something else in mind.

"I wanted to take you somewhere else for training. It has a much bigger water source and a relaxing view," he said.

Jen was already in a stance facing the lake. She put her hands back down and looked at him. "Oh, okay. Where is it?"

Smirking, he said, "A surprise. Just follow me." Kenny started to fly at a direction and Jen followed curiously. After ten minutes, Jen could see a beach with no one there. The weather was clear skies and pretty warm so why wasn't anyone there? Kenny and Jen landed on a low cliff facing the ocean.

When Kenny sat down next to her, Jen said, "Why are you sitting? I thought we were training."

"This is part of it."

"Okay?" Jen hesitantly sat down next to him. "Why isn't anyone here?"

"No clue but we have it all to ourselves," he smiled. Jen just continued looking at the water.

There was a long pause afterwards as they stared at the ocean. Jen assumed this was some meditation for waterbending. To interrupt that, Kenny first spoke up, "Do you forgive me after what happened when Phobos captured you?"

She looked at him while he still stared at the ocean. Not hearing an answer right away, Kenny stared back her. When their eyes met, Jen then looked away. "Well, you were brainwashed so it wasn't really you."

"I still have that guilt inside me though. I was the one who put the poison in you." he put his head down while hugging his knees.

Jen looked back at him and was surprised at how sad he was. She gave him a hug from the back. Kenny raised his head and saw what she was doing. Jen sat next to him again. "How did Phobos brainwash you in the first place?"

"The same way he did to you: through my dreams. My team's final battle with Phobos was about to happen the next day. We had a plan and backup. Then the night before the day, Phobos took his chance to get into my dream. I would never side with him but he brainwashed me. He also gave me a deal to give me a princess if I keep my loyalty to him. I don't know why my evil side would be so eager to have one. But once he took me in the dark side, I betrayed my team and almost killed my teammates by doing so." he said quietly. Jen was taken aback from this.

He continued, "I was the one who brought Phobos and his daughters into the Dream World and the girls destroyed Area 5."

Jen gasped, "But the council said that one of the Gatekeeper Guardians teams destroyed that place, not them."

"No, the Daughters of Darkness used magic to disguise themselves as my team. While the council was being overwhelmed, Phobos was about to take over the Dream World. But the council was powerful enough to take Phobos, the Daughters, and me out of that world. So when Phobos was sealed in the gate, I had to stay with him. I could see what I was doing but couldn't control myself."

"Why did Phobos choose you?" Jen asked.

"He knew about my past life and used my sorrow and misery into power."

"Sorrow and misery? What happened?" she asked worryingly.

"It's a private matter. Besides, I don't want you to get involved. It's in the past now. So don't worry about it, though I appreciate your concern."

However, Jen still wanted to help him. She never knew how hard his life was. But Kenny wanted to turn the tables. "So how has your life changed when you became a gatekeeper?"

She looked back at the sea. "Now that I think about it, it has been a lot. At first, I was pretty shy. Nick and Will were my only support. But Packard and Sam gave me a hard time. I was afraid of messing up and almost did. After being leader again, I started to be stricter and bossier I guess. I was so in the spotlight too when I learned how to be a Guardiankeeper. Then when the battle with Phobos happened, I noticed how hard being the leader with all that power can be. I was killed once, extracted of my powers, poisoned…" she paused and sighed. "So much change happened after that. All I care now is protecting my friends."

"Did you learn to accept those changes?"

She looked at him in a weird way as if it was obvious, "Of course! Like you said, it's in the past. I can't go back. And I want to protect them with my life."

Kenny stood up without commenting to her answer. Jen followed him afterwards. He pointed at the sea and said, "Waterbend."

She didn't believe what he said, "What!?" she shouted. "You didn't even teach me anything!"

"Use what you know of how to waterbend. You'll do much better than 20 year ago when you started," he winked. Jen looked at him, still confused but did what she was told. She focused her energy on the waves while she closed her eyes. She opened them and raised her arms quickly then the waves rose … She was shocked at how high she made the waves. Her opened mouth turned to a smile. Kenny saw the wave and was surprised as well. But Jen's energy didn't last long. She felt her body stop functioning and she fainted. Kenny caught her before she reached the ground. He wasn't surprised that she would lose energy that easily.

Jen slowly opened her eyes, "What happened?"

He put her down on the ground to rest, "You used your max power that the poison would allow you to go. Just rest for now. You did amazing."

She smiled, "Thanks. I waterbended just like that, huh."

"Waterbending goes with 'change.' Once the person is able to accept changes in their life, they can easily waterbend.

"That's why we didn't do any training. You wanted me to explain my experience of change and made sure I accepted it. This must be the spiritual part of waterbending."

Kenny nodded. He helped her sit up when Jen felt like she got some strength back. She took a deep breath before asking, "So does this mean I'm done with waterbending?" she awkwardly laughed.

He shook his head but smiled at her joke, "Unfortunately no, but we don't have to stay too long for it like how you did with firebending."

"Aww, fine. But I'm halfway there to becoming a full Guardiankeeper again. Then I can see my friends again. You can as well."

"Oh, yeah. Sure, I would love to meet the current gatekeepers," he said nervously.

"Don't worry!" she patted him on the back. "They're really nice. Well, at least most of them. I wouldn't count mostly on Packard or Sam."

They stared off the sunset after their conversation. Then the firebender stood up, "Do you want to go closer to the water?"

"Sure," she said as she got up. They flew to the shore where the water could touch their shoes as the waves came closer. Jen wasn't paying attention when water splashed to her face. "Hey!" She used her power to send a water stream to him. Kenny quickly dodged it. The angry Guardiankeeper kept trying to hit him with waterbending but he continued to dodge them.

"No matter how many times you try, you still won't be able to get me," he smirked.

Jen stopped using her power, "Fine then!" She ran towards him and threw a punch at him. He easily grabbed her fist. She was shocked at his strength. Even with the other hand, she was grabbed by the wrist.

Kenny kept his smirk and said, "How many times do I have to tell you?"

Jen struggled to make her hands free but couldn't. Then she decided to do something with her legs. She was about to knee him but Kenny knew she would do something like that so moved in way that got her off balance. She fell backwards to the sand and Kenny came down with her. He still held on her wrists but didn't put his body weight on her. When Jen opened her eyes, she noticed that their face were less than 2 inches apart. They stared at each other's eyes: one dark brown, one blue. With Kenny still in the moment and not holding her wrists as tightly, Jen gave him a light, slow punch on the face. That got Kenny back to reality.

"Finally got you!" she said in a cute voice. But then she switched to a serious one right after, "Now get off of me."

Kenny did what he was told immediately. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

"It's okay. It was an accident." He was surprised that she didn't yell or say anything bad to him. "Let's go back to training with waterbending." He said alright and walked with her to the shore again.

They were still there by night time. However, they were just sitting with their backs to a tree. Still awake, he felt something on his shoulder. Jen fell asleep and rested her head there. He was fine with it and wrapped his arm around her. Finally, he kissed her forehead.