CHAPTER TEN

Bailey frowned as she stood over her suitcase, trying to get the zipper closed. She was packing up, it was her last day in Boston, and she was going to be going back to Yale the next day. Part of her wondered if it was even worth it. Having similar thoughts to Zack, she wondered if anything was even worth it anymore. They were getting their powers back and the prophecy hadn't come true yet, so that meant that there was something big that they were going to have to face. She didn't want to be away at school when that happened, if that happened, and not be able to help her friends when they needed it.

She sighed, moving her hair out of her face.

"Need help?"

Bailey turned as Cody walked into the room, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, his gaze to the floor. Bailey gave him a smile and a nod, turning back to her suitcase. The two of them didn't want to talk about the elephant in the room; her leaving. It would just make everything that much harder.

"A lot of help, actually." Bailey reached out and smacked the top of her suitcase, taking a step back. "I can't get this thing closed."

Cody moved forward and opened the suitcase, looking inside. "That's just because you didn't pack your clothes for optimal space." He held his hands apart and moved them back and forth over the shape of the suitcase. "If I can calculate the dimensions of this bag, not including the size of your shoes and your toiletries, I should be able to compute a way for it to fit completely."

Bailey smiled before crossing her arms over her chest and sitting down on the bed next to her suitcase. Cody hesitated before sitting down next to her, putting his arm around her. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked her gently.

"I was just thinking about everything that's been happening lately." Bailey said, her eyes narrowing. "Tape getting his powers back, Crys getting hers, me being able to communicate with Geneva and now Gattaca, it doesn't really make sense. I've written everything down, that's been happening, and I can't find a reason as to why it's all happening right now, especially with the government finding everything out." She squeezed her eyes shut before looking at Cody, eyes wide with fear. "We could go to jail or face major criminal charges."

"Bailey, I doubt having powers is going to get us sent to jail." Cody said, resisting the urge to sound sarcastic. "We didn't do anything wrong and we didn't ask for these powers to come to us, but they did, and they did for a reason. Maybe we're supposed to try and keep the government from finding out. I don't know, we never really knew who our big enemy was."

"Then how does that explain who is getting their powers back and why?" Bailey sounded exasperated. "And what's keeping the others from getting them to come back? Are the guardians directly related to the powers that you have? Or is it always in you and you just to re-awaken them?"

"Well," Cody moved his arm from Bailey's shoulders and held onto her hand. He squeezed it tightly, as if he wanted to be sure that she wasn't going to get away. He had an unrecognizable, unreadable look on his face. "That might be it. When we first met the Jacksons, they had been awakened for years at that point. From what Sydney told me, though I don't know if this is really the reason, they stuck around us because they knew of strong elementals that were in Boston. They were there, and probably helped, Zack and I awaken when we first started to fight against WingzCorp.

"At the time, Zack and I thought that Riley and Rhuben were a lot stronger than we were, and they were, before we came into our full power. When Crystal came to Boston as well, finding her father, the Jacksons' thoughts of Zack and I being the strongest elementals was true." He paused, thinking really hard. "I think…because of the studies that have been done when they've found that one in every 5 people are elementals…I think the only reason we haven't met that many is because not all of them have awakened. I think the awakened ones are the ones that bring up that statistic. I think everyone has the ability to be an elemental, but they don't know how to tap into that power.

"I don't really know if that makes sense, I was just thinking out loud."

"Actually, it makes sense in a way." Bailey agreed.

Cody noted her tone. "You sound surprised."

"I am, a little." Bailey paused. "It may turn out to be an apt analogy."

Cody rolled his eyes slightly. "You're only saying 'apt analogy' to remind me that you might be smarter than I am." He teased. Their eyes locked, and then both looked away, smiling in embarrassment.

"I'm not sorry, you know." He said quietly. "I mean, wrong time, wrong place, and all, but I'm still not sorry."

"You mean…"

"Yeah."

"No, me either." Bailey said. "I know that you're thinking, what about Moose? I never really liked him that way." She noticed Cody's jaw clench at her ex-boyfriend's name.

"Really?"

"Well. Yeah. What about you?"

He shook his head and winced regretfully. Then he said, "But it was the first time I meant it." A comfortable silence fell between them. After a while, Cody turned towards Bailey and found her lips waiting. It felt easy and natural. As easy and natural as something could feel that made Cody's heart threaten to break out of his chest. They drew apart, saying nothing. They leaned against each other, both reveling in that simple physical contact.

"You know what?" Cody said at last.

"What?"

"I can't spend every day in a permanent cringe." Bailey nodded at his statement and Cody continued, still speaking softly. He was afraid of what her reaction was going to be when he finished. He had never felt this vulnerable with someone before. He hadn't ever been as open with Zack as he was being right then. "You make me brave, you know?"

"I was just thinking that I don't want you to be brave anymore," Bailey said, turning her body to face him. "I want you to be with me. I want you to be safe and not go looking for trouble, just stay with me, stay close to me." She lowered her gaze from his face. "But I know that you can't do that. You don't ever go looking for trouble, it always finds you. And right now, you're probably in the biggest amount of trouble you've ever been in. That's why I was thinking of-"

"Don't go there," Cody shook his head. "I'm not letting you jeopardize your school work for-"

"For someone I lo-"Bailey quickly cut herself off. "For someone I really care about?" She asked. "Yeah, god forbid I do that." She got to her feet and walked away from Cody towards the window.

Cody lowered his head, his hair moving off of his face. He wasn't stupid; he knew he said the wrong thing there. He always prided himself on being the kind of guy that was really in tune with a girl's feelings, especially being raised by his mother, but now he knew that he wasn't ever going to be able to completely stop himself from saying what he was thinking, no matter how much it was going to hurt someone else.

"Bailey," he lifted his head. "I didn't mean-"

"Sorry to interrupt," Tapeworm knocked on the bedroom door to get his friend's attention. He looked back and forth between the two of them. "Whatever it is that I'm clearing interrupting, but we need to get to Crystal's house." He entered the room a little.

"Why?" Bailey turned from the window and hurried across the room to grab her notebook. "What's up?"

"Did something happen?" Cody asked, getting to his feet as well.

"You're going to have to ask the Jacksons," Tapeworm replied. "They just got back."

Zack leaned down and scowled at the toast that was being cooked in the toaster. He let out a wistful sigh as he watched the bread slowly darken, the butter melting over it. He used to be able to toast bread in a matter of seconds, now he had to wait two minutes just to be able to eat something that needed to be heated up. If it wasn't the thrill and the adrenaline rush, the thing that Zack missed the most was using his fire power to make some mundane things quicker and easier.

He distantly heard someone pounding on the front door and watched with amusement as Aaron raced from the living room to the front door. He heard the door open and voices before the door closed again. At that point, he didn't care as he was too busy waiting for his food to get finished.

At least mom can't get on me for eating unhealthy anymore, Zack chuckled to himself as the toaster dinged, letting him know his food was ready. He carefully opened the toaster and used the fork that was in his left hand to spear the toast and bring it towards him.

"Hey Zack!"

Zack jumped, the sudden movement causing him to knock his toast to the floor. Trying to catch it before it hit the ground; he instinctively shot out his right hand, causing it to hit the hot metal sheet that the toast had been sitting on. Zack cursed loudly as he turned to the sink and turned on the water, placing his hand under it. He looked over his shoulder at Rhuben, who was laughing quietly at him.

"Thanks, I burn my hand and you laugh at me." Zack said, flipping his hair out of his face. He held out his left arm and waited as Rhuben walked forward and gave him a side-hug in greeting. "If that toast is covered in hair by the time I get it off of the floor, I'm making you eat it."

"Meh," Rhuben shrugged. "I'll just slip it to Patrick, he'd eat it anyway." She laughed lightly and then looked down at Zack's hand. "The irony of you burning your hand is too easy to pass up." She said, looking like she wanted to laugh all over again.

"Trust me; it's not lost on me." Zack said as he turned off the water. "I was just mentally cursing the toaster as well."

"That's an interesting 'welcome back' then," Rhuben laughed before removing her arm from Zack's waist and turning towards the entrance to the kitchen. "Hey Riles, Zack burned his hand, you might want to check it out." She called and then turned back to Zack, who gave her a funny look. "I figured you might want some time alone or something." She explained.

"Speaking of," Zack grabbed a dishtowel and started to dry off his hand. "How's Reihu?"

"I don't know," Rhuben looked concerned for a second but then it went away. "Ever since Christian sent him to go do…whatever he's doing, his e-mails have been really slow." She shrugged. "But that's normal for him; he hardly has his phone on him as it is."

"Bet you wish you had your powers to go see him, don't ya?" Zack teased.

Rhuben snorted. "Yeah, what's a little pain and torture that I feel every time I go through shadows, just so I can see him?"

"Did you say someone burned their hand?" Riley asked as she walked into the kitchen. She looked at Zack's hand, which was red, and raised her eyebrows. "Talk about ironic." She stated.

Zack grimaced as Rhuben laughed and left the kitchen. "Yeah, we've already gone over that." He said and then moved his hand by his side, shyly. He wasn't sure how he wanted to greet her; he wasn't sure how she would react to it.

"Let me look at it." Riley said, moving closer to him, holding out her hand.

Zack extended his own hand, taking a step closer as she took it. "It feels okay now." He said quietly.

"I don't see a burn." Riley said as she turned his hand with hers.

Zack agreed. "But you don't want to touch it, trust me." Even now, even with all that was happening, he registered her touch like a very different sort of electric shock. Her hand was cold. He liked that. "How are you?" He asked.

Riley moved her hair out of her face, not making a move to drop his hand. "Fine," she replied. "Stressed," her eyebrows crinkled a little bit before she smiled a little. "But I'm used to that at this point." She finally lifted her head and looked Zack in the eye. "Better now." She let out a breath through her nose. "So what's been going on here?"

"A lot," Zack replied. "And I'm assuming that something happened with you guys since you're back so soon."

"Mhm," Riley nodded. "But we'd rather say when everyone else is here."

"Yeah, I get that." Zack agreed. He stayed silent for a moment. "I missed you." He finally said truthfully.

Riley chuckled at his serious tone before giving him a teasing smile. "Of course you did," she replied, dropping his hand and moving hers to his cheeks. "Because I'm such a big staple in your life that you would be miserable if I was gone any longer." She moved forward and gave him a quick kiss. "C'mon." She and Zack walked into the living room, where Crystal, Aaron, Christian, Core, Rhuben, Patrick, Noah, and Sydney were sitting. "Hey Crys, you might want to check out Zack's hand." She said as she sat down on the floor in front of the couch. "He burned himself."

"Really?" Crystal's eyebrows rose as a twinkle appeared in her eye. "That's-"

"Ironic, yeah I get it." Zack interrupted, holding up a hand. "I got it the first time."

"I was actually going to say 'hysterical, but that works too." Crystal shrugged and got up from the ottoman that she was sitting on, heading towards the bathroom to get the first aid kit.

Zack rolled his eyes as he stretched out onto the floor. Crystal came back with the first aid kit and started to bandage up his hand as Cody, Tapeworm, and Bailey arrived at the house. As soon as they were all situated, Tapeworm quickly explained everything that had happened n Boston while the Jacksons had been away. As he spoke, Sydney typed down everything that he said, even going as far as to borrow Bailey's notebook and to type down everything that was in there. The Jacksons didn't ask any questions until they were sure that he had finished.

"So now Tape and Crys have their powers back?" Patrick asked, running a hand over his face, suddenly looking tired. Crystal nodded. "I wonder if there's a specific order to them coming back." He murmured to himself, before turning to Bailey. "And now you can use Geneva's and Gattaca's powers?" It was now Bailey's turn to nod. "I wonder how that's possible."

"It might have to do with the age-old idea, that you can't have the darkness without the light and vice-verse." Noah replied helpfully. "I mean, realistically speaking it makes sense. If you have a light on in the room, there's going to be darkness somewhere, because the light can't touch everything. Maybe their powers are significantly improved if they're with each other." He paused for a moment, thinking. "And when Gattaca was using Zhane as his vessel, her powers were decreased."

"But she still must be pretty powerful if her one attack was able to almost burn Zhane's hand off." Riley reminded him. "And that was just using light."

"It's just a theory; I didn't say that was the reason why." Noah reminded his eldest sister. "There are so many things that could be right and wrong with it. And since Cody says that the prophecy hasn't actually come true yet, maybe it has to do with that." He shrugged. "We don't know."

"That's a good thought tough," Christian commended his nephew. "Bringing it up with the prophecy. If I'm not mistaking, Geneva may have been in Bailey…the same way that Cody thought about it earlier, someone can be an elemental without awakening. It might be the same idea. But Zhane could have awakened with Gattaca's powers when he still only wanted to get back at his sister."

"Considering we don't know everything about elementals, not even what you guys know, it seems to me that it's all that you can go off with right now." Core agreed.

Noah looked over at Core but didn't say anything. He sure as hell didn't trust the man, but that didn't mean that he didn't respect him either. He was taught to always respect his elders, but in recent events and what he learned about Core's actual intentions for the past few years, he wasn't sure whether or not he could ever trust him. It was going to take some time.

"What happened with you guys when you went back home?" Tapeworm asked, changing the subject. "It must have been something big if you guys are back here earlier than we anticipated." He looked at Crystal out of the corner of his eye. "Unless, it was something that you had planned." He shrugged. "I wouldn't put it past you."

"Thanks for the compliment," Rhuben smiled a little. "It's big, but this definitely wasn't planned. Crys did tell us that Uncle Christian was acting funny, looking for something." Her eyes narrowed a little as she looked at her uncle. "And we figured if you couldn't find it here, what if our Dad had it?"

"So you're telling me," Julius said slowly as he stared at his five younger siblings. "That you dragged me away from work, just so we could, somehow, break into Dad's computer to find something that we don't even know they're looking for." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Is that about right?"

"Pretty much." Riley and Rhuben harmonized as they nodded.

"Ok, my only question is, whatever we're looking for, how do you know that it's still there?" Julius asked. "It's been almost ten years," he reminded them gently, not wanting to bring up any bad memories. "What makes you think that they've left his computer where it is?"

"Well, the way I see it, it's a very good possibility." Sydney said, rocking back and forth on his heels, for the first time in his life, looking less confident than he felt. "I mean, Dad was really respected here," he motioned to the building that they were standing in front of. "Whenever we came to visit as kids, they didn't have a bad thing to say about him."

"So we figured if Dad didn't have any of whatever it is that we're looking for on his home computer, then it's on the work computer." Noah continued, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets. "And you know Syd, he can hack into any computer without having to try too hard. We might as well see if there's any hidden files in it."

"Two question then," Julius continued, after mulling it over for a second. "One, how are you going to get by security? And two, what if we get on and nothing's there?" He sighed when his brothers and sisters just looked at each other, not sure what to say. "We might as well do it, it's better to look then to not even try, but if we get caught, which at some point I'm sure we will, let me do all the talking."

"Geez, its times like these I wish that we still had our powers." Patrick commented as they started to walk towards the building. He stretched his arms behind his back. "We could be in and out in a matter of seconds, it wouldn't even be funny."

His siblings didn't reply as they walked into the front of the building. It was as white inside as it was on the outside, people in lab coats were milling around everywhere, walking quickly and talking to each other. Some were laughing, others had their heads buried into folders, and others were talking to each other about their lunch plans as they went by. But none of them turned to look at the Jacksons as they passed by them, walking slowly as they looked around. Julius looked around for a moment before motioning his siblings over to the front desk. The receptionist looked up as they approached and her eyes darted back and forth over their faces, although her fingers still moved over her computer keyboard.

"May I help you?" The receptionist asked as Julius rested his arms on the desk.

"Yes, I'm looking for Reed Jackson's office," Julius replied smoothly. "It's been a while since his…passing and we haven't been by to collect his stuff. I was told that everything was still here." He added hopefully.

The receptionist's eyes took another revolution around their faces before her eyes widened in recognition. "You're not his kids are you?" She asked, slowly standing up, leaning a bit closer to them. Instinctively, they moved back. "Oh, you are. I remember you, I saw you all for the first time a few months before the accident." She reached out and shook Julius' hand. "Your father was really respected around here, his innovations helped the company."

"That's good to know." Julius replied, shaking her head. "So, where was his office? It's been a while since I've been here so-"

"Let me just get you some badges." The receptionist sat down once more, and started to type on her computer once again. Before they knew it, six badges had popped out of a printer that was by her computer. "You just need to return these before you leave so we can dispose of them, can't have these things floating around, you know." She added as she handed them over. "What have you all been up to since…"

"Well, we've been through a lot." Julius replied as he used a hand that was behind the desk to wave his siblings along.

They quickly took the hint and hurried towards, what they thought was the direction of the elevators. No one spoke until they turned a corner. "That was easier than I thought." Rhuben commented as she looked down at the all-access pass that was hanging around her neck.

"A little too easy if you ask me," Riley agreed, "Keep your eyes peeled on anything that you think may help," she added as she stopped, placing her hands on her hips. "Considering we don't even really know where we're going right now." She added as an afterthought. "It can't be hard to find," she pulled her phone out of her pocket. "Text if you find it and we'll meet there."

"Got it." Patrick, Noah, and Sydney replied in unison.

"You had a really good idea there," Core sympathized, looking as frustrated as they could have felt. "I didn't even think that Reed could have kept it. It would make sense, Ruriko was there a lot, keeping tabs on what he was studying, I doubt she would want it around you guys. Not until you awakened at least."

"No, he wouldn't," Christian agreed. "I didn't want it around Crys, either, not until I was sure that she was an elemental. Even at that time, I couldn't keep it away for long; I could see her showing parts of her powers early on."

"Really?" Crystal asked, turning to him. When Christian nodded, she turned a confused glance to her lap. Aaron reached over and patted her on the hand, causing her to smile.

"I didn't think that was possible." Zack said, tilting his head to the side. "I thought when you awakened you awakened, if you didn't you didn't. I didn't think that you showed bits of your power before you actually did come into your power." He continued speaking before Christian or Core could say anything else. "Unless it depends on your lineage as well as how strong you potentially are."

"Mark the time and day," Tapeworm remarked. "Zack used a big word."

"It doesn't help us at all though," Riley sighed, tilting her head back so she was looking at the ceiling. "All it does it give us more questions than answer and at this point, I'm fucking tired of questions!"

"Language." Christian reminded her.

"Sorry, Uncle Christian." She quickly apologized.

That same through ran through everyone's heads at that one moment. How many more questions were they going to get? How much longer was it going to be before everything was so clear to them? What would be clear; who they were after? Who their guardians were being controlled by? How come only some of the guardians so far were able to break away from it? What actually deemed you as an elemental? Were the Elemental world and Earth supposed to be interlocked with each other or was it supposed to be that they were separated? No matter how many things they figured out, they never seemed to actually figure anything out. It was beginning to be more than frustrating.

"So," Bailey changed the subject back. "Did you find anything?" Bailey asked eagerly once Rhuben finished explaining her story. "Did you get into the office? What happened?"

"We couldn't get in," Riley replied, shaking her head. "Something happened and there was like, this meltdown, and we had to get out of there." Her hands clenched into fists. "But I know that we're onto something, I just have this feeling." The right side of her face twitched. "We were going to go back, but then we got some more news from Boston, there's more footage than they had before. I think they're trying to get our pictures so they can track us down."

"Do you really think they're doing that?" Aaron asked, finally speaking up after listening to the whole story. "I didn't think that it was something that serious, just that they were looking at the footage as if they were looking at footage of a UFO."

Christian moved his hand over his mouth, leaning forward as he did so. He moved his hand away from his mouth and looked over at Core, who looked back at him. Cody looked over at the two of them as they straightened up and looked away from each other, a heavy feeling settling in his gut. He could tell, things were going to get worse before they even started to get remotely better.

Patrick's stomach grumbled loudly and Christian laughed as he got to his feet, mussing his nephew's hair as he passed by him. "I guess that's my cure to formally disband this meeting and get you guys some food." He disappeared into the kitchen, coming out a second later with a list in his hand, scratching his forehead.

"I told you before that we needed to get more food." Aaron reminded him, seeming to sense Christian's slight frustration.

"Looks like a quick trip to the store." Riley said as she took the list from her uncle, looking it over.

"Good, I'm getting hungry." Patrick smiled.

"Good," Rhuben took the list from Riley and pushed it into Patrick's chest. "Because you're coming."

"What are we looking for again?" Patrick asked as he hunched over, pushing a shopping cart in front of him. "I kind of forgot already," he chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his neck as Noah rolled his eyes, Rhuben smiled, and Sydney laughed.

"That's what the list is for," Rhuben reminded him as she waved the piece of paper in front of his face. "First on the list is some tomatoes," she squinted, moving it closer to her face. "It doesn't say which kind, but I'm sure that Crys would like some grape tomatoes, so we should get that too."

"I'll get it." Zack offered. He spun on his heel and moved to the produce aisle as the others continued on. He walked straight up to the tomatoes and lifted one up, looking it over. "What do people particularly look for when they do this?" he asked himself before grabbing a bag and starting to fill it up.

He was so busy getting as many tomatoes as he thought that they would need that he didn't notice that the aisle emptied pretty quickly. If he still had his powers, or if according to Cody's theory they weren't dormant at the time, he would have noticed it very quickly. As it was, his reflexes were moving a bit slower than usual. But they were sharp enough that when he noticed someone coming up behind him with a pole in the mirror above him, he ducked to the side and jumped up onto the railing of the produce stand.

The person swung down the pipe, smacking open a few tomatoes in the process. Zack winced as the juice and seeds flew out and hit him in the face.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Zack muttered.

A/N: I hope you guys liked the chapter! :) BTW, Aaron is going to have a bigger part as the story goes on.

Cheers,

-Riles