Daily Note: I'm very glad to see this project get some support! I also thoroughly enjoy all the other Elemental projects on this website, and honestly, I'd love it if you guys showed your support for them. It'd mean a lot to not only me but the writers as well. Especially some people's takes on what happened after the movie ended (Spider-Verse's ending was more brutal in the sense it ended on such a cliffhanger that no one was ready for.), it really made me think about what to do when this project reaches the end… do I do one-shot type stories? I don't know. You let me know!

And as always, SPOILER WARNING FOR THOSE THAT HAVE NOT SEEN ELEMENTAL!

Enjoy Part 3! But first, read below since I promised a time jump.

To put you guys up to speed on what has happened in between the events on where we ended up when Part 2 was over, and where we are now… I will now give a brief summarization of said events, because y'all didn't miss much.

Basically, the entire airball game (which was hell for the first bit due to a specific player not giving it their all) was a sight to say the least. And there was also a slight feud between Gayle & Ember. Even almost went full purple again when she learned there were 25 citations against her (Oh yeah, this part was never specified to Ember whatsoever until I started talking for her, again. This time, allowing me to talk instead of trying to talk over me the whole time). Having that chat went on for only 10 minutes before Max & the entire audience gave a full-on motivation chant for the player not giving it their all. After which, everyone involved became more focused on the game. Ember secretly becoming an airball fan at the same time.

And yes, the WindBreakers won, if anyone is wondering. Anyways, I think we're caught up now. Let's get a move on! Part 3 starts below!

Wow! None of us believed they won after all of that! I mean, after that motivational chant given within the first half hour of the game, was it really that surprising? I just went to the gift shop located nearest the front entrance (where we came in) in the stadium with Max, all the while, Ember was still trying to work something out with Gayle. My time there wasn't long, before I parted ways with Max so I could back her up and potentially walk her back to The Fireplace.

"So, uh yeah… this is why you NEVER give a single person obsessed with this type of thing access to a gift shop!" I came out looking ridiculously crazy, is THIS how I wanted to appear in-front of my boss & my crush? "Oh, yeah, I look ridiculous, I know." I said to Gayle in a "I can explain!" type situation. But little did I know that Ember already did the talking to work something out, so the second processing department won't have to reciprocate the issues (9 times out of 10 closure requests never go anywhere, so who knows if The Fireplace was actually going to shut down). I could even see Ember give some look of anticipation.

"So… what even is happening?" I asked myself, before I got some reassuring news from Gayle. "Well… you two do seem like a good couple and whatnot…" she started. "Whoa whoa whoa! We're not a couple!" Ember nervously stated. She didn't want to admit it, but we were just getting started on being one. And might I add I was one of the Hall's best employees despite everything that's happened (how else did you think I got compensation from the lighter fluid incident?), so, in that moment, she looked like she was considering it, then…

"Alright, Sam, you've got until Friday to solve this ongoing problem, if you're able to by any means at all, then consider the tickets cancelled!" she said back to me. And yes, Gayle was perfectly aware of the broken canal doors. Both Ember & I couldn't believe it. Now it was just a matter of finding & fixing the problem, should be simple enough, right?

5 minutes later

Ember & I were just walking about the edges of the canals at this point, realizing this probablu wasn't going anywhere, mostly because I sort of forgot where the accident happened. I tried to make the best of the situation, "Ok so… should just be as easy as finding which canal I got myself into… right?" I was asking myself. Ember must've heard me, as she was quick to respond with "But you realize that there's A TON of canals that connect with each other ALL over the city! How is it going to be that simple!?" during this, realized her temper was acting up again and was quick to calm herself before getting to something that'd be more important.

"How did you even get to The Fireplace anyway?" she asked. Truth was, I did know, I just didn't want to tell her because I was, for one thing, still processing what happened then, and two, I was freaking out internally.

"You really want to know?" I asked, knowing perfectly well she did. I just always wanted to say this. The slight nod she gave basically said it all.

"Alright… so, being an inspector, or otherwise known to me as being a janitor of Element City, you basically never know what you're going to be doing. But, after most of the oil was cleaned out from the canals that mostly lead into your area of Fire Town, I was called in to verify that all the oil was gone. Turns out, they basically lied because what I assumed happened was that they "finished" cleaning the oil in the pitch dark sometime overnight that night. So, myself and one other person that was tasked with the same job as I were doing our job, right? Then suddenly, a massive wave of over-spillage from who knows where came in, and it basically caused a life-or-death situation between him & I. I was running for my life, when I get sucked into a whirlpool that made me go down the pipe structure that connects to everywhere, apparently, given as I believed us water people were cut access from Fire Town years ago. It was very painful, and I almost lost my life down there. However, I finally had my senses come back to me when I ended up at some blockage in the middle of it all. Just when I thought things would be worse, I heard… er, um, no, I felt what I thought was an earthquake below me, then I just exited from a random pipe, not knowing that would lead to you. So… yeah, that's the gist of it all." I gave an over lengthy explanation but felt as if this was enough information as well to get my point across. Then there came the sudden realization on Ember. "So… my temper DID get you in this mess!" Ember rambled to herself, assumingly directed to me.

Yup, that confirmed it all. Essentially that was because way too many customers were being selfish, careless jerks during the Red Dot Sale, which basically pushed Ember BEYOND her limits, might I also add, BEYOND RECOGNITION as well? Yeah, I sort of figured this earlier, I mean, not like I witnessed a full purple moment last night… oh wait, I did! More realization hit me a few moments later when I realized we were walking in the night sky which makes things sort of hard to see. If it weren't for Ember's flames lighting the way, then it'd be nearly impossible to see half of anything here.

"Um… I don't think we're getting anywhere with this; is there another way we could do this?" I asked Ember. In which, there was.

"Actually… I think I know another way to find what you're looking for. Follow me." Ember replied. So, back to The Fireplace we went… sort of.

10 minutes later, on the roof of The Fireplace

I was purely amazed by this; the view was immaculate from here! It was a little tough getting here, while I got to see the inside of the place to find out that it truly wasn't worth sending in those requests to shut the business down (it was just the bottom living area that had the problems), I had to be absolutely silent. Her parents were asleep at this time, and I was 99.9% sure I'd be a dead man if either one of them saw me.

What Ember was doing up here was that she was making a hot air balloon for us to find the problem area rather easily compared to what we were doing earlier. Not wanting to make things awkward while making the balloon, I figured now would be a great time to get to know her a little better.

"So how long have you lived here?" I asked. When I asked, she finished making the balloon, signaling me to hop on, so I did. Then, shortly after, we took off into the air. A short time passed before I reiterated my question, thinking she must've been busy making the balloon when I asked. "I've been here my whole life, something that I can't say the same for with my parents."

Whoa. That's one thing I just got in common with her, my parents didn't live with me my whole life. But, then I figured it out, this was before Ember was born. Her own parents had to move out of their village due to a storm that passed by a very long time ago. I heard the whole thing from her. "Oh wow… that must've hurt for them. I mean, leaving behind something that is very important to one another, even to start a new life is very hard to have settle in." I replied, before adding on to this.

"As for myself, I've also been here my whole life. Currently I live with my mom, sister, and my 2 youngest kids, of which I adore dearly, being that it's my family & all, so they're the ones that are very important to me. But… my life wasn't easy for me in that I've had several losses, of which I think I've told you already. But yeah, my grandparent's death was the biggest loss, because that ruined my life path. I've bounced between a boutique shop, a theater, and now a City Inspector. Every day that passes by, I still consider leaving that job and working for my best friend, but I still work as a City Inspector so I can be the family man, sort of acting as a father figure for JoAnne and my 2 youngest, Marco & Pollo. I'd say the same for Reid if he were still living with us per se. I've been through hell with this job on numerous occasions. I could go on about that, but I won't."

Again, that was just the gist of my current life status. I'm pretty sure this was all said before, but I just gave brief explanations this time because I was still up here for a reason. Ember could sort of relate to what I was saying. "When I lost a third of everyone I knew a few years ago, I almost couldn't go on, I was just… broken. If my mom never gave me the confidence that she did and, and if she never got me back to good mental health, I don't think I'd be here today. If I had to experience what you did, that'd hurt even more." Ember became visibly upset.

"Ember… I know that was very upsetting, but… how I got over this very quickly, being someone that is very fearless. I just started imagining life as if everyone I lost were still with me today. I know that may sound hard, but after a while, it's something that I'd just get used to." I responded back. Ember took this information in and realized this was something she should've done long ago. I then wanted to change the subject. But not before I also got a slight message that was heavily useful for anyone.

"Sam… there's a word in firish I should hand down to you. Tishōk'. It means to embrace the light, because the light may not always be there forever." Ember would respond. To give a summarization of that, it meant not only what Ember said, but it also meant to anyone else, just take your chances, because you don't want any moment to slip by at all, no matter what. It's not the greatest explanation in the world, but it'll do.

Tishōk'… that'd stick with me starting right then. I then whispered to myself, "I wish I knew about this earlier…". I figured I'd hand this information down to my family. Oh yes, they knew about me (sort of) falling in love with Ember, few family members actually wanted to meet her, to which I'd tell them, "one day… one, day."

Moments later…

"If you don't mind me asking, what do you do at The Fireplace for a living?" I asked, finally changing the subject.

"Well, right now, I just help around the shop. I'll be taking over the shop one day. When I'm ready, that is." Ember responded.

"Knowing my jobs that I've bounced from. It must be nice knowing what you'll do in life. I mean, I wish I would give myself another chance with the first job I left. The second one I was falsely accused of something that I don't remember what it was, but I was terminated for… well, maybe I shouldn't talk about this often." I realized that I was just talking about literally the same things, so I just decided to stop. Somehow, this made Ember a slight bit jealous, remembering the connection I had with Max & literally EVERY person I knew in the audience at the airball game about 2 hours ago.

Her purple flames were slowly showing again. "How do you do it?" she asked

"How do I do what?" I responded, somewhat confused.

"You have a WHOLE stadium, plus a group of friends to connect with, yet I can't even make a connection with ONE customer!" Man, the jealousy was real at this point. "My stupid temper just ruins everything." This was one thing that I had a pet peeve for. Someone blaming themselves for every minor (and major) inconvenience. Such as rude customers.

"No, no. It's not your fault at all. And honestly… I don't think a bad temper means that everything is ruined. In fact, it might mean something else… whenever I lose my temper, which isn't that often, it just means that something in me is trying to tell me something that I don't think I'm ready to hear." I reassured her.

Pro-tip, just think of a temper breakdown as what I just described, it'll make it more bearable to deal with and recover from easier, as I found out the last time it happened, which was way too long ago to remember. It took me a good bit just to get her purple flames gone, but eventually they did.

Basically, that was, until another 5 minutes passed.

While in the middle of us talking about our past lives, amongst other things, all the while still finding the location where this accident happened, we'd pass by someplace that we probably weren't meant to.

Garden Central Station.

Once a train station, this place held something that was THE HOT TOPIC when it was around only briefly. That thing was known as a vivisteria tree. This tree was magical to say the least. Couldn't say much about it, but one thing I knew is that it was perfectly safe with every element. Yet again I saw her look saddened by this place, this time trying not to look this way.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. Stammering on her words, she tried to assure me she was fine, but I think I saw otherwise.

"Are you sure? Because I think you look upset again staring this place over… bad memory or something?" I was genuinely concerned with her at this point. Oh yeah, Ember remembered this place, but not in a good way.

"Well, I… it's a long story." Ember started. I didn't think she wanted to talk about it.

"Ember, it's OK, you can trust me to withhold this information if it's that personal." That was me thinking her experience was something she didn't want to share.

"Sam… it's, it's something that… well, you're right, I don't like talking about. I guess I can tell you though. That was Garden Central Station, it was where the vivisteria tree was. I've always wanted to see one in person. My dad took me one day to go and see the tree. It was the only one that could accept its life-form from any element, fire included. I was so excited to see it, but… they wouldn't let is in. They said we were too dangerous, despite that not being the case at all. My dad tried anything to get us in there. But nothing would come of it. So because of that, I missed my ONE CHANCE to see a vivisteria!" Ember had mixed emotions; I was not surprised to see purple flames again. Also found out from her that the place flooded a few years after this incident happened.

"Ember, I'm very sorry to hear that. You must've been so scared after that." I replied, trying to make the best of the situation, her purple flames subsiding. She knew it wasn't really anything to get that mad about, she knew it bought back bad memories, but really… I thought she was overreacting when she said she missed her chance to see the tree.

"I was… that was the first time in my life I felt that scared. And of course, I never got to come back here again because the place flooded a few years later." Ember responded. I could feel that, I hadn't felt that afraid since the end of my parents marriage, in fact, it made me stronger.

10 minutes later, in the middle of another conversation…

The site was finally becoming familiar to me. And within about another minute of me searching the premises that we were over, I finally found the site where the whirlpool happened. "There! Right there! That's where it happened! Ember, get us down there!" I proclaimed. And land us at the site she did. The first thing I did after landing was check out the broken canal doors. "So that's what that loud banging sound was…" I refused to believe the doors broke like that, I quietly rambled to myself about this for a good minute, before I found the oil that STILL wasn't cleaned at all. "What the hell is this? They continuously lie to me… see why I don't particularly enjoy my job as much as I should?" I was still mad at them for this. I was talking about the people that were supposed to have cleaned every ounce of the oil from the canal. Ember looked very confused at this but knew every reason I didn't enjoy my time at City Hall, not long before the over-spillage came in again. I heard this and KNEW it meant trouble. "Oh my god…" I quietly said, before the water came rushing in. "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE" I yelled. Not wanting Ember to be put out, she had to rush to safety, meanwhile, I was doing anything I could to prevent the water from rushing in, to absolutely no avail.

That was until I spotted a bag nearby. Curious, I got Ember to throw a couple of bags over. They ended up being heavier than I thought. That's when it hit me, they were sandbags. When I realized this, I knew this would seal the doors, even if only a temporary situation just to get Gayle to forgive the citations. "Ember! The sandbags, they're sealing the doors, throw me some more sandbags!" I called out. And more sandbags were exactly what I got. It took a few minutes, but I got enough sandbags to seal off the doors. And once it was safe, Ember came over to see the results. Water wasn't passing through the bags, in short terms, it worked! All I had to do was get Gayle to bring a few higher ups to come investigate this and then, viola, no more chances of being closed! We were basically more than excited to see this. I'd be sure to call in some higher ups within the next few days.

"Hey Ember, any chance you'd like to spend more time with one another? I mean… this has been great, even in that balloon a little bit ago, but I was just thinking about maybe, you know… maybe have the afternoon out tomorrow?" I absolutely wanted to see her more at this point. "Sorry Sam, but you know that other than what I did yesterday, it'd have to take a miracle to cross that bridge." Ember responded, meaning that if it weren't for her being a fire person, she would've said yes to this. And no, that train ride didn't count, she just tried to make it look like it did. "Ember, no one in your family would have to know." I responded back, seriously bound & determined at that point. Seeing her father's death stare at me when I was trying to get to City Hall yesterday said it all for me. "Sorry, not happening." Ember tried to assure me that she just wasn't ready yet.

"Okay, well… if you happen to change your mind, I'll be outside the Alkali Theater at 1:30 tomorrow." I said back, I knew Ember was considering it at this point but knew that she couldn't due to her responsibilities. And without another word, we parted ways for the night.

I couldn't stop thinking about her while trying to fall asleep that night. During all of this, Reid came home. I forgot he was coming home. For Reid, his semester had just concluded at Rockwell, and would be home for 3 months.

"Oi mate!" Reid tried to greet me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he was the only Ripple family member that was of a British descent, so had an accent to match. Took me a few moments to see that he was home. To which I just signaled him to crash in my bed for the night, and when he did, Ember was the very first thing I was telling him about. It looked like he was genuinely excited for me at that point.

"Mate, you found yourself true love? Well done you!" Reid quietly replied. Okay, at this point, everyone I knew received word about me being in love with Ember. However, all needed to see her to believe it. Reid was the latest entry in this trend in my family. "So when can I see this Ember?" Reid asked.

"Like I told the others, one day, when? I don't know, but I promise you'll get to see her." I reassured him.

Yeah, I think this was actually going somewhere, even if Ember didn't agree.

It was the beginning of something spectacular. An impossible odd, if you will.

I will be honest, this may not have been my best chapter yet, but at least it's going somewhere. So with I just finished off with, that'll be a good stopping point for this chapter.

I initially wanted to make that part where the afternoon was spent with Ember (a la the part where Wade did so in Elemental the day after that first temporary solution was proven successful), however, I thought about it, and decided that would make for a perfect next chapter.

Anyways, once again, thank you guys for the continued support, and I'll see you guys in chapter 4! Ciao!