Summary:

Ever since Emma was 13, she knew she had the ability to destroy people if she wanted to, and some days, she really wanted to. After being forced to go the the Greenwood Academy following a traumatizing event in her childhood that brought to the surface her ability to manipulate fire, she never thought she would be free of the place. So for nearly 10 years, she lived a solitary existence with the exception of her best friends, but that was all about to change.

Killian Jones had just been sentenced to attend the university campus at Greenwood Academy after an accident at sea caused him to be dishonorably discharged from Her Majesty's royal Navy and lose his hand. He doesn't know what to think about these newfound powers and what they spell for the rest of his now not-so-normal life. But a chance encounter one day has the ability to change all of that.

A story about love and redemption between two people that shows, if you have the right person beside you, you can find a light in the darkness.

Rating: M

Content Warnings: Mentions of Violence/Death, Brief mention of Childhood Abuse/Sexual Assault, Mild Sexual Content

Chapter Notes: Chapter 3 is here! We finally get to see Killian interact with Emma a bit more and get to see more of her interactions with her friends. Also, princesse-swan posted the first picture set for this story! The artwork that she put together for this story is amazing, and I can't wait for you all to see it and like it as much as i do! Go check it out on Tumblr. On to the story!

"What the Fuck was that!" Headmaster Riggans yelled at Graham, fuming.

Through the daze of having the gloves shoved back on her, Emma looked up at the two men surrounding her. Despite the fact that she felt like throwing up again, she had to smother the urge to laugh. The headmaster's eyebrows were still smoking.

"Look, I'm a water wielder, but I can't just produce it out of thin air. Fire burns out the water in the air, making it dry. I told you that I needed water in here if we were going to be doing a demonstration. I pulled the water from the air as best I could to smother out the flames, OKAY?" Graham retorted, pulling the chain around her waist tighter than necessary, "Besides, there weren't enough trainers here in the first place, two others were supposed to be here. All we did was show them how grossly underprepared we really are at dealing with high risk students."

As soon as she saw all those people looking down at her, staring at her, she was done. She didn't want to be some science experiment or exhibit they could just gawk at whenever they pleased. She was a human being. And she had a power that could destroy them all, and it was all too happy to oblige.

The Flames came roaring out of her, louder and hotter than the initial wave from the flamethrowers had been. She had enough of her faculties remaining to remember to shield the security guards, who had no protection from her inferno, and to shield Graham. The initial storm bathed the room in flame, and she could feel Grahams powers beginning to push against her own. She could also tell just how grossly underprepared they were to bring her here.

When someone is paired with a particular coach, you begin to learn each other's weaknesses and pitfalls when it came to training and their own mastery over their powers. Even though she hadn't been paired with Graham for long, she knew that the biggest issue with him training her was that water couldn't fully extinguish fire. And no other coaches were present to help put out the inferno when the water failed. Fire could evaporate water so easily if she wanted it to.

And boy, did she want to. Emma wasn't out of control, she had full control over her decisions and how she wielded her flames, but she knew after this display, they were going to treat her differently, watch her closer, make sure she wasn't close to exploding again. But now that she had the opportunity to use her powers, to do something since her last pathetic training session a year ago, she was going to take advantage. She increased the temperature of the flames, looking up at that sky box, watching them sweat as she began to show them the power that lurked beneath her skin. Maybe they were right to lock her away, if only to protect the world from her wrath.

Emma grinned, concentrating into making the calamity of flames into something more than just a swirling current like the ocean. Clearing the area around her so the edge of the room was still bathed in flames but she was standing in a clear zone, she weaved her flames in to her weapons.

The flames had warned her that someone was coming at her from the right, so as quick as a snake, she formed a whip from the flames and shot it out, grabbing the guard around the ankle and taking his feet out from under him, landing him square on his back. Cuffs of blue flames burned around his wrists, ankles and throat; restraining but not burning. The guards swarmed in around her, and she met each one of them head on, throwing different weapons and shields up to fight them off, and each time restrained the guards against the ground as she took them down.

She released an inhuman sounding snarl as the last two of the guards came upon her. She was so focused on these guards coming at her that she didn't notice Graham behind her until it was too late. Water swarmed in as he got one arm around her torso, restraining her arms, the other clamping over her mouth and nose, pushing water into her mouth and cutting off her oxygen.

Blackness swirled at the edge of her vision before completely swallowing her whole.

She awoke a short time later to Riggans yelling to get the officials out of there and the gloves being shoved onto her hands, even though they hadn't gotten around to replacing her suppressor bracelets.

"Yeah, well make sure it doesn't happen again. She is on lock down until the end of the week. I will let her professors know. No training either." Riggans said, stomping off in the direction where the government officials would be congregating to do damage control.

The doors snicked shut behind him.

"Seriously Emma, what were you thinking?" Graham asked her as he grabbed her bracelets from their place in the center of the room.

Emma stayed silent as she knelt on the ground, looking down at her gloved hands. She didn't regret what she did, not even a little bit. That might be why she would never assimilate into normal society. Because she just didn't care.

Graham's booted feet came into her field of vision as he stopped in front of her, obviously waiting for an answer from her. After a couple of seconds of terse silence, she heard his sigh of defeat.

Her bracelets came into view next as he knelt down to place them around her wrists, the locking mechanism in place but not fully shut as they waited for the signal to come from the command center.

"I can't say that I don't understand Emma, because I do," as he paused, she heard the mechanism click into place on her bracelets, "But why now? You haven't shown anything like this during any of our training sessions together."

"The last time we trained was over a year ago." She commented, still not looking up at him. He hadn't released her, his hands moving from where he attached her bracelets to rest under her gloved hands where she had them in her lap.

"That can't possibly be true." Graham responded, disbelief coloring his tone.

"397 days to be exact," was Emma's retort as she looked up at his face. The room spun a bit in response to the action.

His eyebrows rose, "I had no idea, I thought we had worked together 5 months ago."

"You brought me before another group of spectators, and a different group of spectators 4 months before that. I don't necessarily think running through basic drills in front of people to make this school look good really counts as training, do you?"

Graham's gaze turned reproachful. "There are ears everywhere, it would do you well to remember that, Emma."

"I live in a glorified prison cell, I don't think I will ever forget that."

The way his eyes softened in sympathy at that statement made her drop her own eyes, asking quitely, "I would like to go back to my room now."

She felt the air shift as he stood and walked around her, slipping his arms under hers and pulling her to her feet. Holding her steady while the world once again began to spin around her, they waited while another security guard was sent in to help escort her to her room.

The trip back was uneventful, and once she was sitting on her bed in her room, Graham removed the gloves from her hands.

Emma flexed her fingers and turned her hands over as he backed away.

Graham paused by the doorway.

"I hope it was worth it." Were his parting words to her as he walked through the door and coded it shut behind him.

Emma pushed her hands against her eyes as the door locked shut.

She wasn't sure if it had been worth it as the silence began to press in on her.

Five days later, Emma was sitting in the dining hall on campus with her friends getting lunch between classes.

"You did what now?" Mary Margaret asked, eyebrows raised.

"I don't know, I just, I was just…" Emma struggled to put words to what she was feeling. "I was just over being something that they could show off and then put back onto a locked shelf once they were done and ignore until they needed to impress someone again."

Emma dropped her eyes down to her lunch, grilled cheese and onion rings, not able to deal with the pitying glances they were giving her.

"But seriously Emma, was almost burning off the headmaster's eyebrows really necessary?" David asked.

"No, that was just an added bonus, and that was the most serious thing that happened to anyone. If I had seriously hurt someone, I would probably still be locked into my room." Emma said, still not looking up.

"Ok, but I have one question, who was that hottie that was at your room this morning?" Ruby asked, a smile in her voice.

"Graham?" Emma asked back, taken aback by the question, looking up to see a salacious grin on her friend's face. "He's my coach. He was coming to unlock my room."

"Yeah, but how well do you know him? What is he like? Do you like him?"

"Whoa Ruby, what part of 'He's my coach' didn't you hear?" Emma laughed. "I wouldn't dare."

"But you have thought about it, haven't you" Ruby said, a bigger smile breaking across her face.

Emma felt the flush burning it's way up her neck.

"Emma!" Mary Margaret adomished from her place across the table, sounding more like an offended mother than her best friend.

Ruby just snickered from her place beside her, "Can't say I blame you, that man is fine."

Emma's cheeks brightened in embarrassment. Graham was good looking, she couldn't deny that. But, just like every other time she had (inappropriately) thought about Graham in that manner these last few days, a different pair of blue eyes, bright with laughter, flashed instead.

"Hey guys, class starts again in ten minutes, Emma and I have to get across campus." David said, moving to pick up his book bag from the ground. Emma couldn't have been more thankful in that moment.

"Fine, I will let it go for now, but don't think that we are done with this conversation Emma." Ruby said, wagging her finger up at her as Emma moved to grab her bag from beside her.

Grabbing the half of the sandwich that she hadn't finished, Emma crumpled up the rest of the trash in front of her.

"Sure we will Ruby," Emma said as she put her bag over her shoulder and followed David out of the dining hall, throwing her trash out as she did.

"I owe you one." Emma commented as soon as they were out of the building.

"No you don't, you have spared me many a time from an embarrassingly sexual conversation with Ruby about Mary Margaret." David commented, shuddering at the memory.

Emma chuckled as the memories flashed before her eyes. Ruby had been relentless at grilling her new friends about their newly founded relationship when she joined the group; which had lead to some very embarrassing, not to mention uncomfortable, conversations for everyone involved.

She shook her head while laughing, "Well, I can't say you're-"

"Hey! Watch ou-"

Emma; not watching where she was walking, slammed into a hard body, sending both of them crashing into the ground in a tangle of limbs. She grunted as the full weight of the body covered hers.

She realized belatedly that David had been trying to stop her from running into this person.

"Emma, hey? Are you alright?" David asked.

The person on top of her, shifting their weight so not all of it was resting on her chest, laughed.

"We have to stop meeting this way Love." Killian said.

Emma groaned and opened her eyes, seeing those same sky blue eyes that had been haunting her all week staring down at her, the sides crinkled in amusement.

"Yeah, well, as you can tell, watching where I am walking is not a strong suit of mine." She said as he lifted himself off of her, then extended that same gloved hand back down to help her up.

She took it gratefully.

"Not something that I would fault you for at this time Lass, it has created quite the interesting run in both times." He said as he pulled her to her feet, steadying her by placing his blunted wrist at her elbow.

David was looking at her curiously.

"Killian, this is my friend David. David, this is Killian." She said by way of an introduction.

"Pleasure, how do you two know each other again?" David asked, looking between the two of them.

"I had the pleasure of running into Swan the other week, as she was hopping through rain puddles on her way back home, I suppose. Got us both soaking wet." Killian said, gesturing to her.

Emma flushed hotly, ducking her head.

"And I wasn't watching where I was going that time either, so I guess the blame for both falls rests on me right now." Emma said.

"You ran into him twice?" David asked, looking at her in disbelief.

"I'm not too worried about it." Killian said nonchalantly, preventing her from answering.

"Where are you from Killian?" David inquired, thankfully changing the conversation from her poor observation skills.

"Coventry, England. Originally from a different area of Great Britain, but my brother and I moved to Coventry to live with extended family when I was very young."

"Did you transfer here from one of the other academies?" Emma asked, genuinely curious as to how he came to be so far away from his family.

Killian scratched behind his ear awkwardly, looking uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was heading in.

"No, but they didn't want to send me to any of the schools in England." He mumbled, eyes dropping down to his feet.

Emma immediately felt bad. She didn't like talking about how she came to be at Greenwood, so she could imagine explaining how they came to one of these schools would be uncomfortable for others.

She reached out and placed her hand just above his stumped wrist.

Killian's eyes darted up to hers, surprised.

"I'm sorry for asking, I know how it can be not to really want to talk about these kinds of things." Emma stated, keeping her tone low. It wasn't that she didn't want David to hear, but there were some things that someone whose gift was only super strength couldn't understand.

Killian gave her a small quirk of his lips, a shadow of the full smile that was on his lips only minutes ago. But when he caught her gaze drifting down to those very lips, that small smile grew into something that Emma could only describe as infuriating.

"Well, I must be off, class and all that. It was a pleasure meeting you Dave." Killian said, extending his hand again to shake David's. "Until next time Swan."

Killian brushed past her; unnecessarily close if Emma was honest, his shoulder brushing hers as he went on his way across campus, heading in the direction of the science hall.

"He seems nice." David said, snapping her out of watching Killian as he walked away from them across campus.

She turned back to David. "Yeah, he does. I don't think I would want to subject him to Ruby though."

David laughed, "Yeah, I don't see how that would go well. But what makes you think that there would ever be an opportunity to ever have them meet in the first place?"

Emma looked over at him, since they had started back walking towards the arts hall. He was smirking. "Oh, Come on! Not you too!"

David's laugh intensified. "It was written all over your face. You thought he was cute."

"OK DAD, what does that have to do with anything?"

"It means I'm happy for you, whatever this means for you." He said as they brushed passed a handful of students that were exiting the doors of Alexander Hall and into the main lobby. Emma rolled her eyes at the statement.

"Well, all I know about this guy is the same as you, that is name is Killian Jones and he is from Coventry, England. Can't really do much with that."

"It doesn't necessarily mean much that you don't know that much about a person to start off. That comes with time." David said as he pulled to a stop in front of his classroom.

A couple of students moved around them to get into the doors, giving Emma a wide berth as they did.

Emma ducked her head to avoid the looks they gave her.

"He also didn't do that." David commented quietly, noting her reaction. "Killian isn't afraid of you, maybe you shouldn't be afraid of what this could mean with him."

Tucking her hair back behind her ear in a nervous habit that David also noted, Emma shook her head at him.

"I don't know David, you know I don't really do dating. Besides, he hasn't noticed my bracelets yet either. I will see you after class." She said, cutting the conversation short. She waved to him as she turned to head down the hall towards the art studio.

David was the only one out of her group that knew that she didn't really have class during this time.

Going to the art studio was a place for her to relax and just be, without having the walls push in on her like if she was trying to relax in her prison cell of a room. She also enjoyed spending time in the library, but during the normal class hours, the building was too full of other students, and no where was private enough for her to just sit and study.

While she had finished the painting of baby Alexandria while she was on her lockdown for the week, she was itching to keep painting, to try and find some way to slow her mind down.

She didn't know what was getting into her friends lately. Okay, maybe not Ruby, but definitely David. She didn't get why they were suddenly hounding her about her personal life. The last week was already reminder enough that she really didn't do well with trying to be "normal", she didn't really want to force that upon anyone else.

And sitting down in front of an easel for a bit and putting paint onto canvas was a way for her to stop her mind from spinning. She grabbed a blank canvas and pulled it tight over its frame, moving to place it on the easel in the corner of the room that she had claimed for herself.

She then turning and looked at the wall of paint colors, trying to find some inspiration to start her work. A light, sky blue on the far side of the wall caught her eye, and she scowled.

While she had just run into Killian, and David had made fun of her for being painfully obvious about her maybe-there-feelings for him, she didn't want him infiltrating this quiet place of hers just yet.

But after the image of Killian's laughing blue eyes faded from her mind, another image, inspired by that same shade of sky blue, flashed.

A woman, made of blue flames, rising from the ashes of her enemies, sword in hand, ready to lay down more justice.

And with that image solidly in her mind, Emma grabbed the paint off the wall, and set to work.