~Cole~

The more he looked back upon it, the worse the idea seemed.

He had been upset, yes. After telling her his story, Diana should have known that he would have trust issues. And yet he opened up to her, allowed her to break down the wall that kept him safe. She of all people should have known that trust goes both ways, so why didn't she tell him her secret? Her background? Her life? It was he who had the trust issues, not Diana. 

And he had done the right thing by leaving her. Vigilantes and murderers didn't work well together. She was supposed to catch the bad guy; he was the bad guy. It was only a matter of time before she turned around and pointed that gun at him.

Everything was telling him that they shouldn't be together. That they should be on their own, opposite sides of the battlefield. So what made him come back? What was the force that drew him back to her?

It was an accident, he kept telling himself. But was it really true?

Cole was resting against a tree with his head in his hands. He could remember it clearly.

It was really only a day or so after he had left Diana standing in the woods that it happened. He had set up shelter made of broken branches and fallen leaves near a particularly wide tree. He was just returning from gathering some twigs for a fire when he heard the sound.

The sound of leaves crunching; twigs breaking. Diana was the only other person he knew to be in this forest, and she didn't walk like that. She didn't make any noise when she traveled; she was quiet and stealthy. Whoever was walking out there was walking fast and aggressively. He heard loud voices outside.

"...two bullets in the chest and an arrow in the leg...is that tracking device still on her?" someone with a rough voice, probably a man's, spoke.

The next voice was a bit higher; squeaky. "I can't tell if it's on her or not. Even if it was, there would be no way to trace it when we're this far out in the woods. I can't get any signal out here." 

Cole peeked out from the shelter. Three men with masks and black clothes were walking fast across the woods, obviously looking for someone.

"You put that tracking device on her, didn't you, Raymond?" the second person asked, irritated.

The old house down on Zehl Alley. His sister's disappearance. Murdering his father.

These guys were looking for his sister.

There was only one thing to do. These guys could lead him to her. He climbed out of the shelter and crawled behind a bush just as the men approached the shelter, looking for any inhabitants.

When they found the shelter to be empty, the men, disappointed, resumed their fast-paced walk. Cole trailed behind them at a distance, careful not to be seen.

Suddenly, Cole stepped on a twig. The men in front of him stopped walking, and he froze.

"Did you hear that?" asked the squeaky-voiced one. Cole noticed that he was bald.

"It's probably just an animal." said the third one, with a deep, bellowing voice. This one had three earrings in each ear. "Keep walking or we'll never find her."

They walked for an hour or so, and Cole, whose legs were beginning to grow tired, started to wonder if it was really a good idea to follow these men who had most likely, at one point, kidnapped his long lost sister. He had just stopped for a minute to tie his shoelaces and rest his legs when he heard another noise. More voices.

"Get her!" the guy with the rough voice ordered. Cole rushed forth, dodging the small animals on the ground.

"Who are you? What do you - " that voice, unmistakably, belonged to Diana, who was suddenly cut off, followed by a muffled voice.

Diana was in trouble.

Cole arrived at the scene. They were near the clearing where they killed that man, Zane. This time, it was Diana with the gun to her head. She was tied up and gagged. The bald guy held the gun while the other two restrained her.

"Let her go!" Cole yelled, stepping into the clearing, his gun pointed at them. What was he doing?

"Well, well, well." the rough voiced guy smirked. "Look who decided to join the party. The one person that can lead us to that little brat!"

Cole didn't know what they wanted with his sister, but he sure wasn't going to help them. He brought his finger to the trigger and pulled it as hard as he could, shooting the earring dude square in the chest.

The bald guy and the rough-voiced guy ran forward, pulling out their guns. Cole did so as well, dodging the bullets and punching the bald guy in the face. The bald guy lost his gun and aimed a punch at Cole. He missed, and Cole took the opportunity to shoot.

Cole ran towards Diana, untying the ropes and setting her free. He helped her up and held onto her as she tried to regain her balance. 

Suddenly, the third guy got up and pointed his gun. Cole reached for his own, but it was lying on the other side of the field, near the bald guy. He saw Diana scrambling to find hers, but to no avail.

"Give it up, Cole Walker!" he shouted with a lopsided grin on his face. "It's over!"

It all happened too fast for Cole to register next. The bald man put his finger on the gun. Cole's eyes zeroed in on the trigger, and he watched in slow motion as he pulled it. He heard the shot go off.

At the last second, Diana pushed him out of the way and put her hands out in front of her. Cole fell to the ground as she yelled. A burst of fire emerged from her hands and hit the man directly in the face. Flames danced in the air and the bullet fell to the ground. 

As suddenly as it happened, it was over. Diana waved her hands and the flames disappeared. The man was scorched, but Cole didn't want to see what Diana had done to him. He got up from the ground and looked around. 

Everything had been returned to normal. It was as if the flames had never erupted from Diana's hands. The man was lying dead on the ground, his gun still in hand. 

"What...what...how?"

Cole turned around. Diana was hyperventilating, staring at her palms as if she had never seen them before. 

"I...I did that? I killed someone with fire?" she asked shakily, staring at him with fear. She was scared of herself. Scared of what she could do.

Cole had been frightened too. He had never seen anything like that before.

No, that wasn't true. He had seen something like that before.

The lake. It was as if Diana could control the fire just as he could control the water. Cole looked back at her. There were tears running down her face.

"Cole..." she said shakily, unable to speak.

"Shhh, it's okay. It's okay, Diana. Listen, come with me, okay? I need to tell you something." he reassured her. Nothing was okay, but he wasn't to tell her that. Instead, he reached for her hand. Diana jerked it away.

"I don't want to hurt you!" she cried. "Stay away from me!"

In response, Cole grabbed her hands and held them in his, staring deeply into her eyes. They were bright, like flames dancing through the night. "Come with me," he told her. "Do you trust me?"

She nodded.

"Good. I need to tell you something," he informed her, slowly walking her over to a tree stump. "Sit."

"Cole...what was that? What did I just do? It was like...like the fire just rushed into my body. I looked over and saw you were in trouble, and...I don't really know. I just felt this rush of anger and so I pushed you out of the face of danger. And then, I put my hands in front of me and the bullet came speeding forward. Something ignited inside of me and this raging feeling came up. It just travelled through my hands and the next thing I know, all I see is red and fire. And I wanted it to go away and so I waved my hands and all of a sudden there's a man lying dead on the floor and - " Diana sobbed, ranting to him.

Cole cut her off. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to. 

He reached his hand out into the clearing. He felt the water coursing through his body. A block of water appeared in front of them, and Diana stopped in the middle of her sentence. Cole let the water solidify, waiting for the temperatures to become so cold that it iced over. Diana stared.

"You...you just created a block of ice in literally thin air..." she muttered, her eyes wide.

"Diana, listen to me. That thing that you did with the fire, I can pretty much do the same thing with water. I don't know how, or why. Do you remember that day we were searching for a place to sleep? You wanted to find a place with water nearby and I told you there was a lake about a mile away? I didn't know how I knew that any more than you did. I could just sense it. That night, I couldn't sleep. I felt alive, exhilarated. And so I went to sit at the edge of the water."

"It was kind of chilly that night, so I sat there, wishing it was a bit warmer. Suddenly, this wave came up and drenched me with water, except it was warm. The water was really warm. And then, as soon as it had come, it was gone. The water dried off, leaving me feeling much warmer than before."

"I went into some kind of trancelike state. I approached the water - I didn't know what I was doing. And I was able to control it. Like, I could make it slow down, I could make it levitate, I could make it solidify. I was able to control the temperature, I could freeze it and make it into ice; I could boil it and explode the ice. I could shapeshift the water. It was crazy. I didn't know how I was able to do it. I just learned about it that night, and I haven't used it since."

"I didn't know there was anyone else like me until I saw you use your fire powers today, just now. You discovered your powers and used them to save my life. What you have - what we have, it's a gift, Diana. We can use our powers to find this Huntress. We can use our powers to take down all the people out there trying to kill us. Diana, we can use these powers to survive. I was wrong to leave you. I thought I was protecting you. But we can be a team, you and I. We can work together. What do you say?"

She stared at him, then back at the ice, which wasn't melting, despite the heat burning down on the two. "You want to work together again?"

Cole sighed. "I think...with our...abilities...we would make a pretty good team. Besides, we have a common enemy, and we both want to find this Huntress. It seems to me that working together is our best option."

Diana nodded. "Let's give it a shot. Last time we tried working together, it didn't go so well. But one rule: we have to do things my way."

"Your way?"

"No killing people unless it's absolutely necessary." she explained. "Deal?"

"Deal." Cole told her.

"Then, Cole Walker, welcome to this side of the battlefield." she told him, getting up from the tree stump and throwing a burst of fire at the block of ice he created, successfuly melting it into a puddle of water.

He was starting to regret this already.