Flame lapped at my legs as I ran through the halls, searching for a way out. I knew my skin was probably getting burnt to the bone, and there was no longer anything I could do about it.

The building was collapsing behind me as it chased me out of itself, pushing through a door that led to the outside world. I tumbled through the grass that was under my feet and sat up to see the building fall in one last explosion, before it all turned to ash. I clever way to erase their whereabouts.

I sighed and fell to the ground, breathing heavily. I took appreciation to the fact that the torturous pain was gone, but now filled with a new sensation. I stroked my legs carefully, wincing at the slightest touch.

I dragged myself to find a source of water, for I was in the middle of the woods. I finally came across a small pond and I jumped into the cool water.

As I washed out y injuries, the realty of past events struck me. I was in the middle of who knows where, defenseless with Anubis running around with precious information. I had no source of contact to the others, and civilization was no where to be found.

I stepped out of the cold water and into the forest where I trekked for hours, searching for a way back to the Order.

I climbed up a tree to see where the forest stopped, but as I scanned the horizon, I noticed smoke coming from over a hill far away.

This can’t be good. I thought to myself as I climbed down and headed in the direction of the smoke, taking slow steps because of the burns.

As I reached the edge of the woods, the smell of burning wood filled my nose. The town it was coming from was barely visible, but I kept pulling myself towards it, trying to ignore the pain on my calf.

I couldn’t bear it any longer. I sat on the ground, watching the town from a distance. There was nothing I could do…

Suddenly, a firm hand grasped my shoulder. I jerked around to see Father Time standing there, Mother Nature beside him.

“What have you done?” Father asked, the anger obviously present in his voice.

“No, no it wasn’t me!” I said, my heart racing. Mother pulled me up and took me aside.

“Mother, you have to believe me! it wasn’t my fault! I didn’t do it.” I said.

“Sh, I know it wasn’t you my dear. We mean, what have you done by giving Anubis your power? How is it even possible? What happened?” She said, calming me.

“He was torturing me! I couldn’t do anything!” I yelled.

“Okay, okay MacKenzie. To get your power back, it, it isn’t difficult. But it’s dangerous. The others are coming in, for this is Anubis’s doing to this town. We need to trick him into performing the same routine he did to take your power from you. That’s your job, okay?”

“Okay.” I said as she left to talk to the others.

They came in quickly, all the others from the Order. First Aria came over to me, then Sol, then Brooklyn, August, and Morgan. They all demanded to know what happened.

I explained everything, and they all embraced me into a hug.

“As much as I love a reunion, we’ve got a burning town on our plate right now.” Brooklyn said, and marched off. The others did too, and I set my plan into action.

It was a struggle to run with my leg, but I pushed myself. Instead of thinking of the pain, I focused my mind on the hatred I felt for Anubis.

I dashed behind a building which had not yet caught fire and watched as the others battled.

Jumping from building to building, I finally found Anubis.

I slowly walked in his direction, dodging falling houses and people, which I directing towards Mother and Father. When I finally reached, I called out his name. His attention came to me rather than the office he was shooting.

“Well, well. I knew you’d be here.” He laughed. I didn’t respond. He shot the fire towards me, but I jumped out of its way as it latched onto a house behind me.

“Is fire all you got? I can take that,” I said, motioning to my legs.

He grinned, and shot a strip of black at my head. I attempted to jump out of the way, but it managed to graze my ear. I fell backwards, shaking uncontrollably. After the sensation passed, I stood back up.

He did it again, but I ducked this time, and it combined with the fire. I turned around and saw the dark flames eating up the building as it collapsed.

I thought of what to do next, and the idea was close to impossible. If it failed, I would be in the hospital for months, if I even made it out alive. I tuned back to see Anubis’s worried expression, and thats how I knew it was the right decision. I dove headfirst into the roaring flames.

The first few seconds tore my skin and seemed to be burning it crisp, but once fully inside the monstrous fire, the world around me fell silent.

My skin began to glow, and y head pounded. The fire grew smaller and smaller, and as It died, my fingertips tingled. I had my powers back. I walked out to face the enemy.

With a powerful sweep of my arms, I killed the fire destroying the town. Now it was just Anubis, Mara and Adriano.

I ran towards him, the burns seemed to have disappeared. I used some of my best moves and fought against him, but his forces were even more powerful.

I clenched my teeth as I fell to the ground for the 10th time. When I realized Morgan, Brooklyn, Flora, Luna and Father were fighting them too, I decided to go find Mother Nature.

I told her I got my power back, but I was still missing my bracelet.

She held up one, and it took me a minute to realize it was my own. I was surprised she got it back. There was no time to ask how, so I just took it and snapped it onto my wrist.

Police cars, ambulances, fire trucks and even news reporters were arriving. We helped everyone else in burning buildings get to ambulances and then took off, avoiding reporters and police accusations.

My knees buckled once I landed and I toppled over, trying to process everything that happened. Sol helped me up, and thats when I started to cry. I hugged him tightly, telling him he was no longer safe. Of course he didn’t understand why, but because Anubis had forced the information of the most important person in my life, I knew that Sol was in danger.

They let me rest in the hospital, where therapists helped me. I only left to eat, where I barely spoke. Even Aria couldn’t get a word out of me. Every ten minutes, I could feel the knifes slicing my skin like they had done, and saw Anubis’s smiling face as he left me in the burning building.

Eventually, they released me and I finally began to talk again. August told me they got her elemental source, and we just needed mine and Morgan’s. I nodded and continued to eat my soup.

A week passed, and I finally felt up to go to the next elemental source site to get Morgan’s, which was a cave in Japan.

Another cave? I though, internally groaning at the memory of Vepo Cavern.

We set out with our supplies and landed on a rocky terrain. We scouted the area for the opening to the cave, but it was nowhere to be seen. After 15 minutes of searching the landscape, we final came across a small hole in the ground, fit for one person each. Morgan jumped into it first, and we didn’t hear anything. Then went August, and Brooklyn. I racked up the courage and fell through the hole. A couple seconds later I landed on a foam cushion. Looking down, I saw my fleet planted into some sort of plant with a sticky surface. The others were stuck too. And then it began to burn. It started with a slight stinging in my ankles, and then evolved into a burning sensation. I struggled to get out of it, but it made the burning worse.

“Morgan, can’t you do anything about this? Can’t you levitate us or something?” I yelled out.

“I’m trying, but it is not working!”

I began to sink as my arms thrashed and flailed. I heard someone yell stop, to stop struggling. But how could I? I was getting stung and devoured by this structure of who knows what. I turned to find that the others were gone. I yelled their names, and they answered back from below me. But from where? I finally followed their instructions and relaxed my muscles, and the burning crawled up my neck as I sunk into the floor. Before I knew it, I was standing on a hard stone floor of the cave, the others standing around me.

“What was that?” Brooklyn asked, gasping for breath.

“Those were ‘Doku frogs’. They’re only native to this cave, and their saliva was what was burning us. They use it to lure in prey,” Morgan said in-between breaths.

We continued on, admiring the beautiful rock structures. The cave was illuminated by glow worms which lined the ceilings, giving the place a soft glow. We used our flash lights to fill the darkness that was left over.

Unidentifiable creatures peered at us, their glowing eyes following our every step. Some curious, others territorial. Morgan ordered us to keep going, simply destroying things and animals that threatened us. This was probably the easiest site.

Before long, we made it to the source and Morgan collected it. We simply returned to the Order without a problem. Wow, that was easy.

The next day, it was time for my elemental source. It was located in Inferno Volacano, located underneath yellowstone. We arrived at the base of the volcano which had not erupted in thousands of years. We began the trek up the side, Morgan helping to reach the top by getting us o fly. Once we reached the top, lava lapped at the side and ashes spewed out. I focused my attention hard on the lava and what was underneath it, moving my hand to the sound of the bursting fire, gaining it into my control. I dipped my foot into it, and so did the others. No one was affected by it, but I did it once more for safe measure. We dove in, and the world we had once known disappeared.

The sky was now a dark orange, and the ground seemed endless. Lava traveled in small tunnels everywhere, and a slow growl was heard under the rumble of the landform. We, swam? We swam through the fire that had the power of killing us on the spot. Straight down, I guided the others to where I heard the growling and a faint whisper saying “MacKenzie”

After about half an hour passed when something reached out from the fire and swiped at me, throwing me back. Burning formed in my cheek as blood seeped out. A screech echoed through the cave and we prepared ourselves to fight. A shadow in the distance, a head, a long body, 6 legs? No, those weren’t legs…

The large wings of the beast pushed me to the side of the volcano, slamming me against the rocks.

“Dragon!” I yelled. I shot fire out of my palms and it slapped the beast in the face, but it responded with a large roar and dove at me. I quickly enchanted the lava of the volcano so the others could use their powers.

Morgan shot small daggers at one of the dragon’s wings, attempting to cut it off. August struck the beast’s eyes with lightning, blinding it. Brooklyn’s powers were useless against the beast, so she clawed at its skin with  knife she brought. The dragon shot fire everywhere, but I controlled it towards the top of the volcano.

We fought the dragon for an hour before it was finally blind, one of its wings shot, and its side slashed up. I called August over to me and proposed an idea to finish it off. She nodded and we took our places. I called the dragon over and it breathed its fire towards me, but I directed it back into its own mouth and August shot a powerful strike of lighting into its throat. The explosion rattled my bones as the dragon fell back down into the debts of the cave. My ear was ringing uncontrollably and the others were motioning for me to lead them on, but my hearing was shot. I could no longer rely on the calling of my name. Instead I focused on something much deeper. I waved my hand along the nearest lava clump and I then felt my hand magnetized to the left and down. I followed it. I did this until I reached the red glow of a lava rock. I grabbed it and admired it’s detail, the hieroglyphics of men with torches, dragons, and flames. I tucked it into the metal pod and held onto it for dear life. We found our way back out of the volcano as the rumbling grew louder. We climbed out and over the side as the lava poured out of the side and one  last roar evacuated the volcano as we reached the ground.

We found ourselves back in the order, handing the source to Mother Nature, who’s glee was clearly present.

“Good job girls. The time has come.” She said with an approving nod. I knew what she meant. The feeling of excitement filled my veins as I though about punishing the man who murdered so many and destroyed everything people cared about.

It was time to find Anubis.