CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Diamond ducked down behind a car as an explosion behind him sent a wave of warmth across the area. Lowering his head even further he closed his eyes against the flurry of glittering shards of glass that went flying across the area. Once the tinkling sound of the pieces of glass hitting the ground ceased, he lifted his automatic rifle over his shoulder and fired back towards the Elementals that raced towards him. As each bullet crashed through the intended target—the middle of the forehead—and the bodies dropped like stones, there was only a tiny hint of feeling that flashed through his stomach.

But not so much that it would stop him from what he was doing. He had to keep them as far away as possible and as it was, once they were taken by Uriel, they weren't people anymore. They weren't humans that had souls, lives, and memories; not when their lives got taken over by the being that held the power of the element of life in general.

Continuing to fire towards the wave of humans that rushed his way, Diamond backed down the street before reaching into his vest and grabbing a canister tucked inside a pocket. He pulled it out and grabbed the tab in his teeth before jerking his head back, ripping it out. Turning his head to the side, Diamond spit the tab out of his mouth and onto the ground, then threw the canister as hard as he could. As it arced through the air, he turned around and ran as fast as he could. There was a bright flash of light and a loud bang that released a bright, mustard yellow smoke through the area, carried on by the wind.

As Diamond sprinted down the deserted streets, he unhooked the mast that sat hooked to his belt and slid it over his face. The smoke filled the area in a matter of seconds, darkening his vision to only a few feet in front of him. But he continued to run through the dilapidated buildings, burned out cars, and eerily quiet street with little to no difficulty. He leapt over cars, slid down the face of those that came in his way, and continued to run until he reached the forested area that blocked off the compound from the city.

Slipping inside, he pulled off his mask and wiped grime and sweat off his forehead, navigating his way through the winding hallways until he reached the spacious room that sat far below the Earth as the temperature change in the air around him immediately alerted him to. He only paused as there was a low sound of another explosion from above, and then continued on his path towards Christian and Core as they stood around what looked like a hard casing, both wearing protective goggles and holding onto welders connected to welding power supplies.

They only looked up once Diamond placed his rifle safety on and placed it on the metal table beside him. Core turned off the flame on his machinery and pushed his goggles up off his forehead, his hair sticking up into the air.

"Is there anything we should know?" He asked.

"They keep coming in droves," Diamond explained. "Whatever it is that Uriel is trying to do, if he's trying to find as many Elementals as he can, he's working hard." His arm muscles bulged as he crossed his arms. "Not only that, but he's using a lot of innocent life for his bidding. Just as we had already expected."

"Is it getting worse?" Christian shouted as he continued to lean over a piece of metal and electronics that sat in front of him, continuing to weld.

"He's moving a lot faster than we originally though he would," Diamond explained. "I don't know how much longer this can be held off. Or, if we can bounce back from it. There's so much chaos and destruction out there I don't know if the city or the world can recover from it."

"That's to be expected."

Diamond nodded and waved smoke away from his face as Christian lowered his solder and lowered his goggles around his neck. Once the smoke cleared, he looked over the contraption that sat in front of the three men. Having a lot of military experience he recognized numerous weapons, explosives, and top secret paraphernalia that not even those with the wildest imagination could ever come up with. And yet, he wasn't sure what he was currently looking at, knowing it as nothing other than Project A.T.O.M.

"Uriel's power of life is something that the others have never come into contact with before," Christian continued, reaching over and picking up a water bottle. He took a long swig, using it as a moment to think. "And with the kids in the Element world—"

"Are you sure that's where they are?" Diamond interrupted.

"Positive." Core nodded and went over to a computer that sat nearby and fell down into the chair. He pulled up what looked like a map of the world, but there was a light green grid covering the face with dots scattered around it. "This is a preliminary program that I created to be able to see into the other worlds, monitor elemental activity on Earth, and to track Zack, Cody and the others. As can be seen on this map, they're not actually on Earth but are in the Element World which, as some have guessed, is probably somewhere in a dimension above Earth."

Diamond tilted his head to the side as he tried to imagine it. Maybe it was to be a heaven of some sorts. It sounded very much like an ethereal place, a utopia where every fantasy could come true. But as far as he knew from having been around Christian and Core for as long as their last confrontation with Mother Nature had commenced, nothing he knew about life was as he had thought. The military man received more insight about the world through the world with Elementals than what was engrained in his head while deployed. The tough as nails exterior he originally had, melted away as he had grown to get to know everything he had been kept in the dark about.

When he had been given orders to capture the blond twins and their friends, he had immediately gone along to do as he was told. He was to capture those that posed a threat towards humanity and their livelihoods then had a harsh reality check when he was told what to do once they were captured. Despite having had a lot of his old self knocked out of him throughout his training, there were still things he couldn't wrap his head round. Such as putting kids in danger.

The only time he had ever hesitated on his orders was when he was ordered to hoot a child that may or may not have posed a threat to him and his company via the use of a hidden bomb. Once that order came, he froze, starting at the little kid that slowly walked his way with a little smile on its face. Someone else had taken care of the job for him, and yet, knowing that he froze was never going to leave his mind amongst the other horrors he had experienced while enlisted.

"As it is, it's only a matter of time until Uriel either manages to capture everyone, or the kids come back and defeat him," Core continued. "And when they do come back,"—Diamond noticed that Core automatically used the term that would dictated their return—"I believe they'll have the knowledge to take him down. They've managed to do it before; I don't doubt they're going to be able to do it now."

"So what's this?" Diamond nodded towards the contraption that was being created.

"This is the backup plan that'll give them the upper hand in defeating Uriel. It's something we—Reed, Kristin, Renee, and ourselves—had started to create before they passed. We were very aware, over the years, that there was a chance for something like this to happen and we wanted to be prepared just in case something like this ever came around. Needless to say it came too late."

Core cleared his throat, walking around the table and motioned to the mound that sat in the middle of the table. "This is project A.T.O.M. The Anima Technological Ordinate Molotov."

"Molotov?" Diamond's eyebrows furrowed together. "You mean—"

"A bomb, eh," Christian clarified. "If assembled correctly, as well as being unsure if it'll work, this bomb has the capability of reducing Uriel's power to that of nearly nothing so that Zack, Cody, and the others have the opportunity to gain the upper hand on Uriel and subdue him." He bobbed his head back and forth. "However, the only problem is that if they're in the vicinity when this bomb goes off, they'll fall under the same fate and it has a blast radius of over two-hundred feet."

"How are you going to test it?"

"That's the million dollar question."

Surrounded by nothing but darkness, Carey was disoriented when she woke up. The last thing she remembered was she; Kurt, Esteban, London, and Mr. Moseby were separated and interrogated by Uriel and those that were working underneath him. She remembered there being a sort of blast of light and then nothing. She didn't remember anything after that.

As a matter of fact, she wasn't exactly sure where she was. She could feel a comfortable bed beneath her, but remembered where they had been before was not as comfortable or relaxing as she was in that moment. She didn't feel anxious or have an overwhelming sense of mother's intuition that allowed her to relax. There was nothing around that was going to hurt her. She felt at east.

All of a sudden something cold and wet moved against her cheek and she lurched backwards, eyes fling open to find a fox sitting by her bedside. Eyes wide, she stared at the fox as it sat back on its heels tilting its head to the side, silvery eyes shining. Then, it turned on its heel and walked out of the room, gently nudging it open with its muzzle. Sitting up, Carey ran her hands across her forehead and watched looked around the room. It wasn't the Tipton, she could see that. It wasn't any house she had ever been in, before.

Pulling back the covers on the bed, Carey swung herself out of bed and walked slowly towards the doorway of her room. She could hear voices coming from one of the room down the hall, recognizing it as London, who seemed to be criticizing everything around her. Despite the circumstances, Carey managed to give a little smile, knowing that everything had to be okay if London was acting like London. She had been very brave when she was taken by the soldiers in Boston, and while Carey believed the young woman could be strong when needed, she wasn't equipped to deal with everything they had seen. As they had been held captive in Boston, she, Kurt, and Mr. Moseby tried to hold back their emotions as much as they could, so they wouldn't scare her or Esteban.

But now…

"And all of this bamboo and stuff is pretty, but there's so much more you can do. Brighter colors. All of this muted stuff makes it look like you live in a hut." There was a brief pause and Carey heard London say with an air of disdain, "Which this isn't far from."

Carey could hear Mr. Moseby start to say something, then let out a heaving sigh, shaking his head. She turned the corner and stepped into the open and spacious living room to find her friends all kneeling on the floor around a table with mugs steaming tea in front of them.

"Oh good, you're awake." The voice sounded behind her and Carey watched as a Japanese man walked by her, holding his weight on a cane, the fox walking a few paces behind him. "I sensed you would be. The others have gotten up at nearly the same time. It took a while to get that sleeping spell off of you, but I figured you would need it after what Uriel took out of you guys, trying to break into your power."

"Power?" Carey repeated.

Kurt spoke up, waving her over. Carey went over to the empty space at the table and sat down as the man picked up the teapot that sat nearby and poured some sweet smelling tea into her glass. "This is Akito, he's the one that brought us here…with some of the...same sort of thing that Zack and Cody are able to do."

"Not quite" Akito gently shook his head. "My powers don't resonate as well as they used to, I focus more on my spirituality now more than anything else. Though to be precise it was a mixture of the light that surrounds us as well as my spirits. It took a lot to get you here, but you are all safe. Eos made sure of that." He nodded over towards the fox that leapt over to the area by the head of the table and curled up on the floor, closing its eyes. "It took a lot, but I managed to rival Uriel's powers enough to get you here. I believe he may need time to rest." He motioned to Carey. "Please, sit down."

Doing as she was told, Carey sat on the floor, crossing her legs. "Do you know what's happened with Zack and Cody? Are they okay?"

"I haven't sensed anything wrong with them at the moment, so I would believe it's safe to say that they're alright." Akito moved to rest his cane against the wall and made the slow, painstaking process of sinking to the floor so that he could sit with them. "They're in another world that will make sure they're ready for the time they'll come back to Earth. We can only hope they make their safe return to Boston, soon."

"Excuse me." Mr. Moseby raised a hand, sounding more like his normal self. Carey smiled, able to picture him behind his little desk in the lobby of the Tipton hotel. Whatever it was that Akito had done for them, he really did give them peace of mind. "How'd you know where to find us?" Mr. Moseby asked. His eyebrows lowered as he watched the older man circle the table and sit down at the head. "How did you know we were in trouble?"

"It's all very simple really," Akito replied. "My granddaughters told me."

A/N: I'm trying to get out longer chapters, but I feel like these somewhat short ones are moving the pacing along, so I guess it's a bit of a toss-up.

So you know how I was saying that I had an idea for a fourth story in this series? I also recently got an idea for a fifth story, though the fifth story could very easily stand on its own. Not to mention potentially re-writing the 'Home' series so that everyone can see how the Elementals stuff started again.

And not to mention some other ideas that are like Did You Runaway, Did you Fall Apart, Save Me From Myself, Help Me Save Me, and the upcoming Intuition.

Cheers,

-Riles