CHAPTER EIGHT


The FCIC; Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The CIA; Central Intelligence Agency. The two organizations that were stationed in Langley, Virginia, a couple miles outside of D.C. Every time a crisis would come up in the United States there were some sort of faction of both teams that would immediately fall into action. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission's last big piece of work was considering the attacks on 9/11 as the fallout of the economy and the safety of the United States residents were their main priority. Things had to be turned back to normal so that the attacks wouldn't cause a completely fallout to the lives that resided on the thought they were financially stable.

The CIA's last project was that of 9/11 as well, taking up most of their time, as well as gathering as much information as they could in regards to terrorism. Anyone that fell under a certain profile was the kind of people the CIA made sure to get their information on, the FBI going on the manhunt afterwards, using the information that CIA had found.

This time, however, both factions were now studying the close link between the Elementals and the way the United States could move forward, now that their presence had become well known over the past couple of years. The heads of each department had been floored, finding out that it was a bunch of teenagers that had been at the head of the fights and destruction going around, especially in Boston, Massachusetts. Not that there hadn't been any other elementals that needed to be followed around the United States as a whole, but Boston was the main area the incidents were happening.

It hadn't taken long for the CIA to figure out that Nathan Reeves, or Core as he preferred to be referred to by, was at the head of the incidents. His work through the government files as well as files of his own had been notified of the first moment he had stumbled across them. The work on elementals had been investigated on and off for years at that point in time, seeing how Core and his friends had managed to find out more than the government could in a matter of months, the four had been kept tabs of the rest of their lives.

Now they had a group of teenagers deep in their organization, getting the intense training only those that had the mental capability could withstand. Some would say "they're only kids, how could you do that to them?"

But if anyone had seen how they worked up close, they would note that they more than 'just kids'.

They were the ones that were going to save the word.


Bailey flipped herself upside down, holding herself up on the parallel bar by her legs. After a couple of minutes, she could feel the heaviness of blood rushing to her head, collecting at the base and turning her eyes red. The backs of her legs started to burn but she continue to hold herself upside down. That was what she had to train for, to push herself to the limit when things got uncomfortable. One of the easiest ways to break someone was by forcing them into constant pain for as long as they could handle it. She knew of the dangers of hanging upside down for too long; high blood pressure hemorrhaging, stroke, brain damage, blindness, seizures…

All of those were possible outcomes to the form of torture. She had heard about them before, being turned upside down and allowing the pressure to build until death if not getting a chance to relieve the pressure. And that was only one form of the torture that could be used, another being held in a upside down like position, but having water run over your face, giving you the feeling that you were drowning, if not from the claustrophobia as the person being tortured was put in a shallow like grave to achieve the affect.

Bailey closed her eyes, breathing a steady stream through her nose and out her mouth. A dull pain started to throb at the side of her head. She could hold on a little bit longer. Her extensive research of the human body as well as how each system worked throughout it was something she was knowledgeable about. She knew when her body was going to give out; it wasn't like the rest of her friends. She wasn't an elemental so she didn't have the ability to run faster or lift more weights or be impervious to certain things; she had to work her body harder and harder to be a valuable part of the team.

"You are a valuable part of the team," Geneva pointed out. "You've always been since I first revealed myself to you. I knew you were able to handle what was going on."

"And you were one of the ones that managed to stop me," Gattaca added. "As well as to help return to mother back to the Element World where she's reigning over the kingdom the best she can."

"What does that mean for Father Time though?" Bailey asked out loud. Opening her eyes, she groaned, seeing how the colors had started to change, and slowly brought herself up onto the uneven bars. She brought a hand up to her chin. "Just like in the human world, if there's a lack of time, there's a lack of life. Plants wouldn't grow, humans wouldn't grow up to become adults, there would be on advances in technology. We would still be in the proverbial dark ages." Stretching her legs out, she rested her feet on the bar that was across from her and bent forward, placing her face in her hands, waiting for the pounding to go away. "What does that mean for the Element world?"

"Without Father Time's presence in the Element World, it's only a matter of time before it will inevitably collapse," Gattaca said bluntly.

Bailey sucked in a sharp breath.

"But don't worry, child, Mother Nature is doing her best to preserve the life of the Element World," Geneva reassured her. "You're forgetting that it's managed to hold its own for as long as she and Gattaca haven't been there. Those that are still there are defending it as much as they can from those that are trying to take it over. That's what the Mystic Melody is for."

"Tapeworm explained that to me once," Bailey said. She finally sat back, pulling her hair out of her face. "It's a battle sound that you all use as a warning to get prepared for a fight, right?"

"It's used for more than that."

"The Mystic Melody is also what's used to enhance the powers of those that are going to go fight, depending on the strength of the opponent they're going after. The longer the melody goes on, the more power they need."

"I always thought the power of the Elementals were infinite," Bailey mused. Bringing her leg down, she started to kick them back and forth. She could feel the muscles in her legs starting to cramp up and tighten with each kick of her leg. It seemed like humans were able to have an infinite source of power, but even then there was a chance for people to completely tire themselves out, no matter how in shape they were. "If there's a limit to that power…where does it come from?"

"From the world's core." Bailey turned around to see Aaron walk into the room, skillfully dodging the pieces of gymnastic equipment that had been left behind by those that had been using it before. He pulled himself up onto the bars next to her and turned to face her, shifting his floppy blonde hair from his face. "Or the maybe the Earth's core, considering the world is collapsing on the other." His voice cracked at the end of his sentence, causing Bailey to smile. The young boy had definitely grown up in the couple of years that Bailey had known him. He had started to lose the baby fat that had been left over and his voice had started to change, along with growing to the point where he was nearing being taller than the girls. "There's a theory that the core of the planet, along with being surrounded by magma and rock, holds the essence of life of that planet." He flipped his floppy blond hair out of his face. "And if that were the case, that means that the power of the core of the planet is the only thing that's keeping life alive."

Bailey slowly nodded. In a way, that made sense. Everything she had ever known about life, before accidentally stumbling upon Zack's and Cody's secret had all seemed to implode as soon as she had seen that battle. She closed her eyes. Koto and Reihu had been very vicious the way they had fought the twin boys. It was obvious they had been dealing with it for a long time, especially the way they had interacted with each other in between the punches and kicks and fire and water attacks. She hadn't known anything about that existence until it was right in front of her face. Who said it wasn't possible that the earth's core was more than what scientists were lead to believe? Who said it really wasn't an infinite source of power that kept the planet from collapsing?

"If that were the case, then how hasn't it been tapped out yet?" Bailey returned.

Aaron slowly blinked, his eyebrows furrowing together. "How do we know it hasn't?" He returned. "You're forgetting that we haven't been able to accurately see everything about the Element World and we probably never will. There're a lot of different things that we won't know until the time is right." He rolled his eyes. "God knows that's not going to happen until the Earth blows up."

Bailey laughed and gently lowered herself to the ground. We could only be so lucky, she thought. If the Earth blows up, we could probably all move to the Element World and keep things going from there.

"But then there's the fact that we don't know how things work over there," Aaron continued. "Sure, Tapeworm somehow managed to manifest part of him that was able to get there in his dreams, but we can't be sure that was the real thing." He ran a hand through his hair, brushing the bangs off his forehead. "At the same time, who am I to say that he didn't see what he saw?"

Bailey looked back at the young boy, who had jumped down next to her, resting his hand on the bar. He gently tapped his fingers up and down, the vibrations moving through her palm and up through her body. That was the way he was able to see things, through sounds and vibrations, maybe a mental picture after being in a specific place for so long. He proved at times to be a skilled fighter despite the fact that he wasn't able to see. He didn't have any powers that they knew of but managed to compensate for it by using his smarts that rivaled Sydney's, to help out the rest of the group.

"You seem to know a lot about this," Bailey remarked.

Aaron shrugged. "Just theories," he denied. "The fact that I can't see it directly is the most difficult part. But that's why I have this program that basically explains it in things other than just pictures and ideas; it explains it in numbers and figures."

That, Bailey realized, might be what they needed to help figure things out. It was limiting, in a way, to only be able to see things as they happen, rather than try to understand them in different ways. Bailey chewed her lower lip as she thought about it. It made a lot of sense. Maybe that's exactly what they needed.

"You know how your sister's computer has a lot of stored up information on Elementals that your Dad has managed to gather?" She asked slowly. Aaron nodded. "Is there any way that you can use that in your program and change it to the algorithms that you use?"

"Possibly," Aaron agreed. "I'd need Sydney's help but—"

"Exactly," Bailey agreed. "That's exactly what I'd need." She reached out and ruffled Aaron's hair, causing a small smile to appear on his face. "Thanks!" She grabbed her towel off the floor and walked out of the gymnastics area and out into the hallway. She took a deep breath, looking around the winding, confusing hallways of the compound that she and her friends had been transported to. A part of her had been excited to know she was going to be seeing the CIA headquarters and how things in DC really worked—it being one of her biggest dreams—before realizing they were going to be put up in a compound to eat, sleep, and breathe rigorous training before they were sent out on their next mission.

Hopefully this would be the one that would save both world and keep them from fading from existence.

Hearing a door close down the hall, Bailey followed the sound and locked eyes with Cody, who had just come out of the medical room. From the small bandage that had been put on his right forearm, he must have had a physical done. The two continued to watch each other for a moment and Bailey gave him a nod before turning on her heel and walking away from him.

It was funny how things like war managed to tear even the closest people apart.


"I don't want to hurt you," Zack said, cracking his knuckles.

Riley, who stood across the room from him, cocked an eyebrow. Her upper lip curled at his words and she gritted her teeth. "You won't," she replied coolly. She fluttered her fingers at her sides before curling them into fists. "You won't even get close enough," she added under her breath.

"Are you ready?" Christian asked, staring down at a computer screen. Sydney sat at his side, looking at his own computer, eyebrows lowered in concentration. One he got the confirmation nod from Zack and Riley, Diamond pressed a button not he stop watch to signal the start of the match. "Go!"

"Firestorm!" Riley was quick to move, summoning her fire powers and creating a hail storm of fireballs down towards the blond teen. Zack dove forward onto the ground and rolled out of the way of the raining fire. He cupped his hands together and send a stream of fire back towards her. Riley flipped backwards out of the way, barely managing to escape a burst of fire, it singing her shoulder. Using her enhanced speed, she surged forward and ducked under Zack's outstretched arm, spinning on her left foot and driving the heel of her right into the side of his face.

Zack stumbled back, bringing a hand up to his cheek. He scowled then brought his hands up, throwing a punch back at her. Riley caught it in her hand and forced his arm out of the way, punching him in the side. Zack retaliated by grabbing onto both of her hands and forcing them apart. He wrapped his right leg around her left and forced her to the floor, aiming a kick of his heel down onto her stomach.

"Wow, they're really going at it," Sydney murmured.

"I did say I wanted to test the extent of their powers," Christian murmured. "It's not common that two people having the same element in close proximity."

"What about Cody and Crystal?"

"Ice and water are similar factions, but they're not the same thing. Their powers can easily help each other as they're in two different states. Just like if one of you were and Elemental of Light he or she and Rhuben would be able to help each other as their powers can't work, or stay in balance, without each other. Having two fires, on the other hand, has the better chance of causing more destruction."

"But Zack controls regular fire and Riley controls dark fire! Wouldn't that balance it out?"

Christian nodded. "Normally, it should, considering all signs point to the fact that Zack is Riley's light, but in this case it may have to do more with pent-up aggression."

Sydney nodded. "The Koto thing?"

"And considering she was the one that awakened him and he ended up being stronger than her; that may have something to do with it." Christian winced as Riley struck Zack with a kick so hard he fell back, rolling across the mats that were the floor of the training room. "And she basically just proved my point."

Sydney looked up at his uncle with a sly smile. "Something tells me you're not just having them fight to see what Zack's power is like now that he can use the Element Stone of Fire,"

"You'd be correct."

Sydney sighed, shaking his head though he chuckled in amusement.

Zack's scowl deepened as he crossed his arms and brought them up, shielding his face as Riley aimed a fiery kick at him. He pushed her backwards and his right hand started to glow a brilliant red. Instead of the glow encompassing only his hand, it went over his entire right arm before it burst into flames. Still crouching on the ground, Zack started to windmill his arm, as if he was warming up his arm for a baseball pitch. Each time his arm swung around the flames continued to get brighter and brighter.

"Here we go," Christian murmured. Sydney nodded and angled the camera that was connected to his laptop over at Zack, zooming in as close as he could, while still getting a good picture.

"Fire kiln!" Zack stopped swinging his arm and thrust his arm forward. The fire came off his arm and continued to spin in a large fireball. It got bigger and bigger before shooting across the room over towards Riley, creating a form of a dragon so large that the temperature of the room rapidly increased.

Dammit. Riley took a step back then glared, furrowing her eyes together. She thrust out her own right arm. "Darkness Dragon Flame!" The black dragon that resided on her arm lifted up and turned into flames as well. It roared loudly and charged back towards the dragon that Zack had created. Hers was considerably smaller than Zack's dragon and while it had done considerable amount of damage over the years—enough so that she only used the attack a handful of times—Zack's dragon crashed into it and dissipated it, his dragon crashing into Riley and sending her into the back wall. She fell to the floor, breathing heavily, closing her eyes. Dammit. She knew she had made a mistake, using that attack so early when it drained so much of her power…

It was a mistake. She knew that now.

"Stop!" Diamond called, pressing a button on the stopwatch once more. He glanced at the time and walked it over to Christian who looked at the time and wrote it down.

Riley, who continued to sit on the floor, slowly brought her knees up, resting her forehead on her knees. She tried to catch her breath, already feeling lightheaded. She had been right in disagreeing to the practice in the first place, it was a bad idea. But then Sydney had done what he always did to get his way and widened his already large eyes to appear as innocent as possible, immediately causing her walls to crumble, making her give in. This was your fault; you can do better than that. You have before. You just let what they said get to you…

"I said I didn't want to hurt you," Zack said, walking over and sitting down in front of her. "I'm sorry."

Riley lifted her head and looked at him defiantly. "You didn't," she denied stubbornly.

"I think that would prove you wrong." Zack indicated to the burn on her shoulder. She merely glanced at it, before shrugging, turning her head away. "Don't you want to get it looked at?"

"No!" Riley climbed to her feet, gritting her teeth as a flash of pain rushed up her arm. She walked away from Zack and turned to Christian, Diamond, and Sydney for further instruction. They all seemed preoccupied with the data they had just collected. That was fine. She left the training room and headed back towards the room she had been assigned, her footsteps echoing quickly off the wall, her fast pace expressing her agitation. After a few minutes of walking she let out an exasperated sigh and turned her head so that she could look at Zack out of the corner of her eye. "Stop following me!" She snapped.

Zack smirked as he picked up his pace, falling into step beside her. "I've been following you for years and it's never bothered you before."

"I just never said anything before," Riley murmured. "I was too busy punching or slapping you." Zack grabbed onto her arm, pulling her to a stop. "Which is what I'll do again if you don't let go."

"Not until we talk about this," Zack said forcefully. He tilted his head back in the direction of the training room. "You let what they said get to you."

Riley frowned, doing her best to have it be the only amount of emotion to register on her face. She hadn't thought anyone noticed how easily what Christian had said shook her. She hadn't thought about it in a long time and hearing the words out in the open again affected her more than she had wanted it to.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said.

"About Koto?" Zack's eyebrow rose. "We haven't talked about that at all?"

"What's there to talk about? He's dead. End of story."

The bluntness of her words caused Zack's mouth to tighten. He waited a moment before speaking once more. "The fact that he saved me when he died is a big thing, especially considering beforehand he wanted nothing to do but rip my throat out." Riley didn't respond. "Also because he was your friend even though the two of you never seemed to acknowledge it."

"And for the most part I didn't acknowledge you're my friend either, let alone my boyfriend," Riley pointed out.

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out." Zack snickered.

Riley finally managed a smile, causing Zack to smile back. He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She turned her head away, bringing a hand up to her forehead and scratched it, hiding the look of anxiety that flashed across her face. "We weren't even close friends anyway. Just two people stuck in the same sort of situation, but I got out and he didn't."

"And me being stronger than you doesn't bother you either?" Zack didn't look convinced.

Riley's lip twitched. "That'd be a petty thing to get upset over don't you think?" Her eyes moved away. It was a sad thing to get over and at the beginning she could admit she was upset over it. She and Rhuben had been used to being so strong and having that sense of responsibility put on them, especially having found out about the prophecy first. When Zack and Cody had been destined to be the strongest relief had taken place of that responsibility along with confusion. They hadn't had any relatives that had been in the situation and all of a sudden they were the strong ones? It hadn't made any sense.

"The fact you're not answering my questions proves my point, considering you only do that when you're trying to avoid something." A small smile graced Riley's lips. Apparently he knew her better than she originally thought. Must be times he was following me, she thought. Zack reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder, gently stroking her neck. Riley resisted the urge to knock his hand away, not sure if it was a move of affection or condescension. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Riley said finally. "I'm just starting to realize that I really hate not knowing what's going to happen."

"About what?"

"Everything." She placed her hands on his shoulders and gave him a quick kiss. "I'll see you later." Turning on her heel, she continued to her room.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm fine."


A/N: Before I offend anyone, I don't know much about the FCIC or the CIA, I read Wikipedia as much as I could to understand, but as with most things having to do with the government in general it escapes me and I only have some general knowledge. So I used the idea of them as sparingly as I could while it fell into the plot with this story.

And Zack and Riley having to talk about Koto was bound to happen sometime between the three stories as there were moments of tension between the two because of that subject through the end of the first story and throughout the second one as well as Riley's thoughts on Zack and Cody being the 'strongest elementals of their time'. Plus I thought a fight between the two as they share the same element would be interesting to write and I haven't done it in a while.

I hope you liked the chapter. I'll update soon.

Cheers,

-Riles