It's the end of class and I'm going to put away my stuff and leave when Hendrix walks up to me.

"Hey," he says, "Can we talk?"

"Um, sure," I say.

I feel heat rising in my cheeks again. I shouldn't still be nervous about this.

"You've been acting kind of weird recently," he says, "Like, you've been really quiet and it seems like you're always kind of distracted. Is something going on? Because, if this is about what happened at the tournament, you shouldn't get this worked up about it. You made a mistake and no one is holding it against you."

"It's not that, it's just, um, I can't tell you."

"I'm not going to judge, I just want to know what's going on."

"Hendrix, if someone was forcing you into something and you weren't sure if you should actually go through with it or not, would you still do it?"

"No, Lily, you don't have to do anything you think is wrong."

"What if you knew something bad would happen to people you cared about if you refused?"

"Lily, is something going on? Are you in trouble?"

 "What if you knew the end of it could be horrible, but you didn't want your family to get hurt?!"

"Lily, what's going on?"

"Just answer the question! Would you do it or not?!"

"I-I guess I would protect my family, but why would that happen? Do you need help? Is someone threatening you?"

"Just, forget I said anything okay."

"No, this sound serious. What's going on?!"

"I'm not allowed to tell you. Please, just go away."

"Okay," he sighs, "Just, if something is going on, I want to help. You know you can come to me if you needx anything, right?"

"Yeah, I know, it's just complicated. Can you please just forget I said anything?"

"Okay, I'm sorry I upset you."

He walks away and I start towards my next class. I should have tried to say something. The bracelet would stop me, but maybe I could have shown him that there was a problem. Maybe he would have looked into it further. Although, if he did that, he would probably end up dead. I did the right thing. I'm doing the right thing, aren't I? I hope so.

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The other two are coming over today. After what happened on Saturday, I think we should talk to each other alone. I think it would help us build some trust. We'll probably need to trust each other considering we're pretty much going to overthrow the government together. We need to be able to work as a team.

We leave the school and ride the bus to my house. We walk in, no one's here right now because I don't have any siblings, my dad's at work, and my mom is... not here. We sit down on a big brown couch with red and white pillows.

"Okay," I say, "So, I think we should try to trust each other more. Considering what we're going to do together, we should try to build up some faith in each other."

"Lily," Vincent says, "Is this about Saturday? I told you I was fine. I know you didn't do it on purpose."

"That's not what this is," I say, "I just thought we could do sort of a trust exercise. I thought a good way to do that could be to have each of us tell each other how we got our powers."

"Really?" Rivka says, "Why how we got our powers?"

"Well, it's something fairly personal, and with black hair, no one ever tells other people about how it happened. How I earned my red hair is something that I don't like to talk about. Vincent, your powers are kind of a mystery, and I think you kind of avoid telling people everything about them. I don't even know exactly what they are."

"Alright," Vincent says, "We can do this if you think it'll help us."

"Yeah," Rivka says, "I guess I'll do it too, but both of you have to swear you'll never tell another living soul. Everything we say in this room stays in this room. Deal?"

"Deal," I say.

"Deal," Vincent says.

"Okay," I say, "I'll start."

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It was about a year ago. I lived on a small island with a low population. There was a volcano on the island. It had been dormant for centuries. No one ever thought it would activate again.

It was just a normal day. I never thought it would be the day that changed everything.

I was with my best friend, Avalyn. We were at her house watching a movie when it happened. We felt the earthquake. We had those often enough where we were. They were bad but, we knew what we had to do.

We got under the table and waited for it to end. It lasted a bit longer than they usually do. It was a strong one. I probably should have seen what was coming. The power was knocked out too.

I went home to see if my family was okay. They were a good distance away. We didn't want to use their car in case there were any aftershocks so I had to walk.

We lived a good distance outside of town. The walk would take about an hour or maybe an hour and a half depending on how fast I walked or if there were any aftershocks. Avalyn stayed at her own house because her family didn't want to be separated. I honestly can't say I blame them. That's why I was going to walk back to my house in the first place.

I was about half way there when I started to hear the alarm. It was a loud high-pitched beeping. It took me a minute to realize it was signaling that the volcano was erupting. The only times I had heard it before then was every year in the spring when the city would test it.

Even when I realized it I stood completely still for about five minutes. I stopped dead in my tracks and looked around. The first thought that went through my head was "It's not April." I just stood there in complete shock that this was really happening.

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"Wait," Rivka says, "You knew a volcano was going to erupt, and you just stood there?!"

"Well," I say, "Yeah, even though they tested the system no one ever thought it could actually erupt."

"Didn't they prepare you for it if this did happen?"

"They did but, it still took me a minute to remember what it was."

"I wouldn't have just frozen like that in that situation."

"Okay, get put in that situation and say that again Rivka. You weren't there. You don't know what it was like. You didn't stand there and realize your home might be destroyed. You don't get to say that to me until you go through it yourself. Are you really going to tell me you wouldn't be shaken by that situation?!"

"No," she says, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, just let me finish the story."

"Okay, but what was powering the alarm system if the power got knocked out?"

"The city has generators at each alarm to power them in that kind of situation."

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When I did finally process what was happening, I tried to remember what to do. I knew they were evacuating the island. I knew they were going to take people out on boats. I tried to think of which port would be the closest.

I knew there was one close to my house, and it was further from the volcano anyway so I decided to keep going home. I started to run. I ran harder and faster than I ever had before or have after. My sides ached, my legs burned, and I felt like I was going to puke. But I kept running. I had to get home before they left.

My family probably thought I had stayed with Avalyn and her family. Even if they did, I knew they would stay for longer than they needed to in case anyone needed to be picked up who couldn't get to one of the city ports in time.

I finally reached my house and looked into the water. No one was there. The boat was gone. I cried out to my family, hoping they might hear me and I would be safe. They didn't no one answered. They had already left. They were gone and by now it was definitely too late to get to another one.

The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I was going to die here. My home was going to be destroyed by lava. I was stuck here, and I was going to be killed right along with it. My parents and whatever stragglers made it here on time were long gone. I was never going to see my parents again. I was never going to see my best friend again. I was never going to see my boyfriend again. It was all over.

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I look at Rivka and Vincent. they're both just staring at me with a mixture of sadness and horror. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

"How did you get out?" Rivka says, "What could you have done in that situation to survive. I mean this must have had something to do with earning your powers, but how could you have possibly done it in time for them to save you."

"That's what I'm getting too," I say, "I didn't even think I could survive."

Vincent looks sad and afraid, like it was him and not me who went through this experience.

I take a deep breath and continue.

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At that moment all I wanted to do was lay on the ground and cry. I felt the tears burning at the corners of my eyes. I let them fall, purely because I didn't know what else to do. I was going to die.

Then I got angry. I was angry that I was going to die because of this. I was angry I couldn't do anything about this. I decided that even if I was going to die, I was going to try to survive.

I walked into my house and changed into a long-sleeved shirt with long pants. I put on an old pair of swimming goggles and a heavy coat. I grabbed extras of everything and plenty of food that would last roughly two weeks. grabbed several water bottles and filled two milk jugs with water. I put it all into three shopping bags and a backpack. I also got a cloth wet so I could hold use it to block out some of the smoke. I knew the house was probably going to be burned by the time this was over and I filled a bag with things that mattered to me.

I decided to keep walking in the direction I was before. It would at least take me further away from the volcano. I was hoping I could find a cave or something to hide in until it was over. The smoke was starting to fill the air and rocks were starting to fall. I was sure that there was more lava flowing closer to the volcano. I held the cloth up to my face and kept walking.

I kept walking until I felt like I couldn't even move my legs anymore. I found shelter in a small cave just to get out of the storm for a bit. I saw a large rock blocking off most of the cave from me. I didn't think anything of it until I heard sounds coming from behind it. I recognized it as the sound of a crying child.

I poked my head around the rock and found a little girl crying and coughing behind the rock. Her hair was still white, and she had watery blue-grey eyes. The space between it and the cave wall was just big enough for her to fit through but, I knew I never could.

"Hey," I called out to her, "Are you okay?"

She looked up at me and her eyes widened at seeing another person. I briefly wondered if she even knew what was going on. More importantly where was her family? Did they need help somewhere? Had they just left her? Had they been separated? I didn't know.

She climbed to her feet and ran towards me.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Sadie." she said.

"Where's your family?"

"I-I don't know. We were camping a-and I g-got separated from them. Then th-that alarm went off and I'm scared and I don't know what's going on and I want my family and I don't know where they went and I just want to go home! The ground was shaking and rocks started falling from the sky so I hid in here."

"Okay, Sadie I need you to look me in the eyes and listen right now. Okay?"

She nodded and looked up at me.

"Now do you know about the volcano?"

"Y-yes, I'm not allowed to go near it."

"Well, it's erupting. The lava is coming down, and that's where the rocks are coming from," I pulled out another rag and got it wet, "Here, hold this over your nose and mouth," I said handing it to her, "It'll help you breathe. It will block out some of the smoke."

She complied.

"Okay," I said, "I don't know how long we're going to be here. Your family probably left the island by now. If they did, it means they're safe. I promise they didn't mean to leave you behind just like my family didn't mean to leave me behind. All we can do right now is stay here where we're a little safer than we would be otherwise. Do you understand?"

She nodded.

I don't know exactly how long we were in that cave. It had to have been at least a few days. The lava had stopped, and I decided to leave the cave to see if anyone had come back yet. I had to take Sadie with me to make sure no animals got to her. Even if it wasn't totally safe to be outside, I knew she would still be safer with me than if I left her alone.

We walked towards the town and I'll never forget what I saw. Everything was burned and blackened. Most of it was unrecognizable as what it used to be. I felt tears fill my eyes as I came to terms with the knowledge that my home for as long as I could remember had been destroyed.

I looked down at Sadie and saw her completely sobbing through the rag I had given her. I knelt down and hugged her until she managed to stop. We kept walking and calling out to see if anyone had come back looking for us.

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"Wait," Vincent says, "Why did you think anyone would have come back just for two kids. I mean no offense but, it couldn't have been worth it to them to risk other peoples lives over this."

"Well," I say, "I guess I kind of knew that. I really was just desperate and was hoping for a way out. I also had a little girl with me and I didn't want to have to explain to her that her family wasn't going to come back for us."

"That's true."

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In all honesty, I was somewhat hoping that someone would be there. I was trying to hold myself together for Sadie's sake but I was just as scared as she was. I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't even know if we were going to survive. I hadn't planned on finding another person on the island and our supplies were running out.

The food and water we had left were going to run out soon. We needed someone to come and save us and I was desperate enough to hope that someone had. We kept going and unfortunately the town was pretty close to the volcano. Suddenly the ground started shaking again.

I looked at the volcano and knew the lava was going to start flowing again soon. My first reaction was to panic. I couldn't think of any way we could survive. I thought that for sure that the lava would reach us before we could get away.

Then I realized that Sadie had been strangely quiet for the last twenty minutes or so. I looked around and started to call out for her. Where could she have gone? I had to get to her as fast as I could. All the while I couldn't avoid asking myself if it even mattered if I found her in time.

I looked up and saw her at the base of the volcano climbing up. I ran after her every bit as hard as I did when this whole mess started. When I finally caught up with her she was already part of the way up the side of the volcano. I reached for her hand to pull her back away from it. She pulled away from me and kept climbing. I climbed after her as fast as I could but her being smaller and lighter let her move faster.

"What are you doing?!" I yelled at her.

"I'm going to stop this!" she yelled back.

"What are you talking about?!"

"My sister told me about people who went into the lava and it let them control it so it couldn't hurt anything anymore!"

"That's not real Sadie! Please get down from there!" I could feel hot tears rolling down my face, "I don't want to lose you too!"

She paused, and I saw tears in her eyes too. Rocks started to fall along the sides of the volcano.

"Watch out!" I cried.

She got hit by one of the rocks and was knocked to the ground at the base. I hurried to get down without getting hit myself. I pushed the rock off of her and saw she was almost dead. Her body was covered in bruises and scrapes. She was badly bleeding and every bone in her body must have been broken.

I lifted her head and held her close. I was crying now. This was the first time since the eruption that I was completely sobbing. I knew there was no way I was going to get away in time, Sadie was dying already, and neither of us were ever going to see our families or friends again. I was trying desperately to heal her but, it wasn't working fast enough to make any difference. I hated myself for having such weak powers. It was all over.

The lava had started to flow by now. I knew I should get up and try to find shelter. I knew I should take Sadie with me. I knew I needed to do something, anything to try to get away and find safety. Even though I knew this, I just couldn't. I couldn't do anything. In that moment all I could think of was that both of us were going to die and there was nothing I could do about it.

Before the lava hit another rock fell and hit my right leg. I heard a sickening crunch before feeling some of the worst pain I've ever experienced. I knew my leg was broken, and I wasn't going to be able to run even if I wanted to. The lava had almost reached us by this point and more rocks were coming to crush us. I knew I wasn't going to survive.

I looked at the rocks and saw that one of them was a Thought Rock. I had heard about these being inside the volcano but they were always too dangerous to mine for. It was clear like a diamond but, it also had every color of the rainbow in it. I knew it could transport someone anywhere in the world. I also knew it could only take one person.

"Sadie!" I said, "Sadie! I need you to think really hard of your family right now! Can you do that for me?"

I could still feel tears running down my face. I thrust the gem into Sadie's cold hands. The lava was only inches away from us and I could already feel the heat burning my skin. In the next instant she was gone, and I was on the ground alone, about to be consumed by lava. The next thing I knew it had completely overtaken me.

After that happened I- well, I don't know exactly what happened. I opened my eyes, and I was it was like I was inside the volcano but also not. It was definitely a room carved out of part of a mountain. The entire room was bathed in red lighting and there was a man in a red, orange and yellow cloak in front of me. There was also a woman wearing a hooded cloak with every color you can imagine standing next to him. There was a circle of fire around us. This one was as close as the lava had been but, this fire didn't burn me. It was just the pleasant warmth you would feel standing in front of a fireplace.

"Lillyana," the man said, "your act of selflessness and bravery has impressed us. The girl was going to die, anyway. Even if she was sent away, you must have known she was going to die soon. Even as we speak, she is about to die surrounded by her family. You must have known this and that you would stand a better chance of surviving if you were sent away, yet you chose to let her use your only chance of escaping. Can you tell us why?"

"I just thought maybe she could live," I said, "I just didn't want her to die like that. I thought it would at least be better for her to get to see her family again. Even if it was only one more time. That was all she really wanted. I-I just wanted to give her that. It was my fault she got hit in the first place. I should have been keeping a closer eye on her. I-I'm sorry."

I can feel myself starting to cry again as I realized that even if I did save her from the lava, Sadie was still dead. The woman gently put a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't be sorry my child," she said in a sweet almost motherly voice, "What you did showed courage, chivalry, selflessness, and kindness. You have earned a high honor for the first time in 300 years. Look me in the eyes child."

I looked up at her. She took my head in her hands and put her forehead against mine. There was a flash of white light and when it cleared I felt a strange power in my eyes that I had never felt before. All of the colors around me seemed like they were a little brighter, and a little more distinct from each other.

"Now," the man said, "You have earned the fire symbol as well, I suggest you stand still."

Suddenly the ring of fire reached much higher. The flames were now taller than I was. The man reached into the fire and took out a piece of it. He held the fire in his hand and ran it through my hair. I felt a sudden rush of power and took a piece of hair in my hands. I saw it had turned red like the fire.

"Now Lily," the woman said, "We're going to send you to your family or more accurately we are going to send you to Sadie and her family. Yours will be two rooms over. Good luck child."

There was a flash of light and I was in the middle of a small room standing next to Sadie's broken body on the floor. Her family was around us and obviously terrified by their youngest dying and some stranger appearing with her.

I knelt down on the ground next to her. I felt tears in my eyes but, now they didn't fall. I picked her up just as I had back on the island and held her close. I squeezed my eyes shut and two tears slipped out.

"I'm sorry Sadie," I whispered.

She started to softly glow gold and sliver. I set her down and watched as she floated a foot in the air and all of her wounds were healed right before our eyes. She slowly sank back to the ground. Her eyes opened, and she looked up at me as new tears filled my eyes only this time they were tears of happiness.

"Sadie?" I said.

She sat up and looked around the room; first at me, then her sister, her grandparents, and finally her parents.

"Thank you so much," she said, "I love you all. I have to go now. I'll see you in heaven someday. Bye, bye."

She hugged me hard then walked to her family. She hugged and kissed them all. She told them she loved them and not to cry. She was so calm through the whole thing. Until finally she walked to a small chair in the corner. She sat down, closed her eyes, and smiled at us. Then she was gone.

"I'm so sorry" her mother said, "This is all my fault. I should have protected her. I'm her mother. Why couldn't I keep her safe."

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect her either," I said, "I really tried. I'm so sorry. I have to go to my own family now."

I went down the hall found the room my parents were in. Sure enough, they were two rooms down.

"Hi mom," I said, "Hi dad."

"Oh my god you're okay!" my mom exclaimed.

"What happened?" my dad asked.

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"I told them and then we ended up moving here about a year later so I could learn to use my new powers properly and here we are," I say.