Jay's POV

"I think that's the last one," Nya pants, wiping a bead of sweat off of her forehead as she eyes the pile of guards she just took down. They're soaked from head to toe in a pool of mud as they groan and stir, but none of them try to get up.

"And you said that my powers were cool," I stop reclining on the wall and walk so I'm at her side. Wanting to save the rest of my powers for an emergency, Nya has been very adamant on single handedly taking down all of the guards that we've come across. She throws them around like rag dolls with her powers, and while I would love to get in on the action, I never thought that I would be content just watching things go down. All of her movements are mesmerizing and tantalizing. Watching the power and precision she uses with her abilities only further solidifies how badly I want her.

"Cause they are," her eyes flicker over to me, partnered with a little smile, before they finally reach the door. "I'd like to say it's a shame that we haven't ran into any elemental masters along the way here, but it honestly isn't. This place sucks."

"Tell me about it. I look like I've been swimming just because of how soaked I am in sweat, and I'm so zapped out that I can feel my body working slower than usual," I can't help but groan a bit as the sweat on my skin sticks to the air. I know it's my body's way of trying to cool itself down, but it just makes me feel gross, and I know that I look gross as well. "Do you sweat differently because you're the master of water?"

Nya lets out a little snort as the two of us pick up into a jog in the direction of the elemental army. "I can make it so I don't sweat, if that's what you mean, but since it's a negative feedback loop, I'd rather not prevent my body from getting back to equilibrium."

"Fair. Oh, by the way, once we get to the elemental army, I'm going to let you do all of the talking," I inform her.

She looks back at me with a teasing glint in her eyes, but I can practically feel the nervous energy leaping off of her skin. "Oh yeah? Are you at a loss for words?"

"Pfft you wish. While some of those people knew me and still blindly hunted me down, and I would absolutely love to just order them around, I have no idea what they've been through here, and I don't want to make things worse. You can be the one who leads them out while I just help them out."

"We're both gonna need a drink when we get back," Nya sighs, bringing her middle and index fingers up to her temples and rubbing little circles.

"Tell me about it."

The two of us keep our pace as we run towards the elemental army, our feet hitting the dirt floor of the tunnels and creating a little dusty puff in our wake. Our trail shouldn't matter though since if things are going to plan, the majority of the unnatural elementals should be attacking Kai and Lloyd right now.

As we near the cells, a grumble of groans starts to fill the air. At the miserable sound, the two of us pick up our paces until we finally reach the long row of cells. The sconces on the walls barely illuminate anything, so I can only see dark silhouettes slouched over in their cells. Surprisingly, there are no guards actually in this area, but that could easily be because they rushed forward to defeat Nya and me earlier.

I can feel the vengestone weighing against my skin, trying to stifle my powers even though I'm not touching it. I feel them dampened, but not gone.

"Guys, it's me, Nya. We're going to get you out of here," she announces in an even voice that silences all of the groans.

All of their chains immediately start to rustle as they move, and I move my hand down to my bracelet to activate the buzz saw accessory. It quickly pops out, revealing the sturdy yet compactable blade that I designed.

"Oh my god, Nya," a deep voice quivers, and while his voice is significantly deeper than I remember it, from the way every muscle in my body tenses up, I know exactly who it is. "I'm so, so..."

"Shh, we can talk about it later," she cuts him off, but not with any malice. Her voice is soft, and I can picture her placing her hand on his arm as I turn and get to work on the first cell that I can get to.

I bring the bracelet to the bars, hoping that the screech of the opposing forces will drown out what is happening behind me. The buzzsaw cuts through the metal, sending sparks flying everywhere. Once I sever a part of the bar, I move up, creating another horizontal cut on the part above the lock, trying to dismantle it from the door.

"Master of lightning?" the words draw my attention, and as I'm pulling the door that is now separate from the lock open, I come face to face with Gravis, an elemental master even older than me.

His face is hollow, clearly lacking some essential nutrients, but more importantly, it's all scrunched up. All of his features are knitted together besides his eyes that are wide.

"Gravis," I deadpan as I bring the buzzsaw closer to him to try to free him from his cuffs. He immediately recoils, drawing his wrists close to his body, and I can't help but audibly groan and roll my eyes. "For god's sake... Nyaaaaa," I turn my head to look back at her. She's working on Shade's shackles, but she immediately stops and turns to us. "Tell Gravis that I'm not going to hurt him." I point at the man who is still backing away from me defiantly.

"You cannot expect me to trust him, Nya. He is the master of lightning, an actual murderer!" he throws up his still constricted hands into the air.

"He is innocent, and so are the rest of the elemental masters of creation. They are all here making it so you can escape. They are our allies, so treat them no different than if they were official members of the army," Nya announces to everyone, and the firmness of her voice makes my heart rate pick up.

"You cannot expect me to..."

"That is an order from me too, Gravis. We would be fools to slow down our only way to escape. Plus, Nya said so," Shade reaffirms Nya's command, directing the last part right at her.

I immediately whip back around and get to work on Gravis's cuffs, cutting the chain in between before I snap a bracelet along one of his wrists behind the cuff now that he has enough mobility to use it. I press a button, and the buzz saw pops out.

"Use it to free yourself from the vengestone and help free others once you're done," I order, and instead of snapping back, he presses his lips together and nods.

I turn around just as the final bit of vengestone drops off of Shade's wrists, and he throws himself at Nya, pulling her tightly into his arms. She's pressed up right against his body, and as she wraps her arms around him too, my skin goes numb.

I can't turn away as if my feet are glued to the ground. He brings a finger underneath her chin and tilts her head up before leaning down. He whispers something in her ear that makes her lips curl up into a little smile. Then, he brings his lips up to hers and ghosts them for long enough that she could pull away if she wanted to. She doesn't, and as he connects their lips, the part of me that was keeping me going after the news about Aria breaks, shattering into a thousand pieces in front of my eyes.

Every single organ in my body contracts, my lungs unable to get any air and my stomach sending a nauseous wave up my throat. Tears cloud my vision, and I finally muster up the power to look away, but the damage is already done.

My head pounds as I get to work on the next lock, cutting the bar right below the lock. My hands shake as I do so, my unoccupied fingers nervously tapping together, and I can feel the person who I'm freeing intensely staring at me, but I don't care. I try to focus on the way the sparks arc in the air, but I can only see her lips moving against his.

I keep going through the motions, mindlessly freeing elementals from their cells and handing them a bracelet to help, as I'm so deep in my head that I'm barely aware of what I'm doing.

"I know a lot of other people are being jerks to you right now, but thanks for helping us," a soft voice interrupts my thoughts, and I look up to see a woman looking at me with brown eyes. Her messy light brown hair frames her round face, and even though she looks exhausted, her lips are in a small smile. Considering there is only one other girl in the elemental army, this has to be Nya's best friend.

I force myself to put on a fake smile. "It's no problem, Aspen."

Her eyebrows instantly stitch together. "How do you..."

"Nya's talked about you, all good things, of course," her name gets stuck in my throat, but I cover it with a small cough. I swing open the door to her cell and get to work on Aspen's shackles.

"My powers...they still aren't working," I hear some guy announce on the other side, and I let out a sigh, remembering a small detail that I forgot.

"Your powers have been suppressed for so long that your body needs to regenerate some more elemental energy," I tell him, not caring enough to turn around to see who he is. "It'll take a bit, but we already cleared the way out, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal."

I cut through the chain connecting Aspen's cuffs, and seeing as I reached the end of my row, I help free her from her shackles, grabbing onto her arm in an attempt to stabilize it as I work the buzzsaw but only making it even more shaky.

Once Aspen is free, she makes her way to the group of elemental masters all huddled together in the middle, and as I scan the rest of the cells, I see that none are left unscathed. I let out a sigh of relief knowing that we're nearly done.

"Everyone, quiet down," Shade's voice cuts through all of the murmurs. The room falls silent as he slightly waves his hand up and down. "Since there are only two people with powers here, we're going to try to escape in a giant mass and hope that the two of them will be able to overpower anyone we come across. Nya and I will lead in the front while the master of lightning will protect us from the back," Shade informs the crowd from his spot right beside Nya before looking at me. "If that's alright with you, of course."

"Go ahead," I manage to get out in a flat voice. Nya's head slightly quirks to the side. Her eyes find mine, silently asking what's up, but I just turn away and lean against a nearby wall, the coolness of it helping to cool down my melting skin.

I just rest there as Shade starts to take over the mission, ordering the other elementals around, and while the sound of his voice makes me cringe, I maintain my aloof composure and try to focus on my breathing instead of the pangs in my chest. I take a deep breath through my nostrils, picturing the oxygen seeping throughout my body, before letting it out through my mouth. I repeat that process, in and out, but it barely makes a difference.

Not only did Nya kiss another man, but she did it here in Aria's lair, one of the few places that could have me so thoroughly unsettled. Being in Nya's company was the only thing keeping my mind from collapsing earlier, but now that she's enthralled with Shade, I'm here to fend off my thoughts of Aria.

Even though Cole said that she wouldn't be here, I can't help but imagine Aria walking into the room at this very moment and setting her crazed eyes onto me. She would use her elementals to fight a way to me and then entrap me in vengestone so that I'd only be hers.

This place is driving me insane. Being here in itself makes my heart race, and mixed with how Shade is already not leaving Nya's side, my mind is literally about to shut down.

My skin is on fire, and my head is pounding. My stomach churns, and my throat burns with the stomach acid that's trying to fight its way up. The tears pile up, fighting to escape and pour down my face. To make it even worse, I can feel all of the neurons in my brain absolutely frying my amygdala with how much activity it's getting.

All I need to do is get out of this stupid cave. Once I do, I can burrow myself deep into my blankets, turn on a Starfarer movie, and pretend like none of today even happened.

I just want my friends. If I had any of the guys, I would feel so much better right now. I could lean on them about Aria, and we could be over to the side together talking, and they would tell me that I'm justified and not just being absolutely crazy in being upset at what I saw Nya do. But they're not here, none of them, so instead I'm standing off on my own as the army that I used to help lead organizes itself.

I just want to be done with this awful night, so as Aspen comes over to break me out of my trance and kindly inform me that we're about to leave, I press the little button on my watch to signal to the others that we got the elementals out of their cells, and I take my place several paces behind the back of the group. If anyone comes from the back, they won't stand a chance. I'm too raw for any self-restraint.

A/N: So sorry for the lack of updates! This semester just started, and I've had a hard time finding time to write! Hopefully I can try to squeeze out an update every week (or maybe every other week)

Nya hit Jay with the low blow there ouch man is going through it tonight

Thoughts?

Next chapter we get to see the other two parts of the plan. How do you think they'll go?

Thank you all for reading! You're the best!