I started chasing the broodmother, but when she saw me approaching, she ran off, Emir in tow. I cursed Rose for running off, I cursed them for keeping a bomb in their room. What was wrong with them?

I urged my hands to start burning, and felt the heat rise. I tried to make wall of fire behind the brood mother, but while running it was difficult to concentrate. I know Rose would survive the blast, but I need them now, they have better agility then me.

The brood mother was slow, but she could also throw dark matter my way to push me back, so I had to be careful. I decided to stop and throw a ring of fire around the brood mother, trapping her in there.

She backed up, and her clothes singed, and she surged forward. As she ripped Emir off her back and placed him on the ground, I realized that she was going to use Emir as a step bridge.

I started sprinting towards the two, trying to put out my fire but it was too late.

“Rose!” I screamed in desperation. I put out the fires raging on Emir’s body, but the damage was done. His face was charred, and his chest and stomach were filled with third degree burns, still warm to the touch. “Dammit Rose, help me, she got Emir!” I shouted. I swore very rarely, so if they heard me, they knew I was desperate.

But nothing happened. No footsteps, no telepathic messages, no sight of Rose. Nothing. Squat, zip, notta.

Something was most definitely wrong. But my first priority was to protect Emir.

I took Emir, and ran into Old Town, looking for one of our older, less equipped bases. It took me a few minutes to find, but when I did, I entered, and ran up the stairs. I put him down on a bed, and scrambled to find a first aid kit. I also got some ice and put it into a bag. I rested said bag on his face, trying to cool the burns.

I called Rose on my phone, but again, no response. What happened to them? I called Mattie, “What the hell do you want, Ambee?”

“Don’t call me that. I need a medic to the base in Old Town. And as soon as possible. Need to be able to deal with burns.” I said frantically.

“Ugh, Fine, I’ll send Austin over there, just stay there.” He said. I hung up, and sighed with relief, I thought he’d be stubborn and let his grudge against me allow Emir to die.

Austin is our highest ranking member of the “medic class” as we call them. They’re the ones with healing abilities. Austin was one of the first people Rose ever recruited, not in the original circle, but close. I waited for him to show, doing what I could to keep the burn cool, and keep Emir’s fever down.

Austin’s ability, Mutation, is sort of scary, it allows him to change the human body however he wants, whether this be, healing a burn or a giant whole in the leg, or removing the heart or lungs, or even surgery like operations. But, while it is scary, he was helped us do so many things that we wouldn’t be able to do without his ability. It’s so essential to our operation that Rose would kill him if he left. They only told me, but it’s sort of obvious at this point. Although, I doubt Austin would’ve left regardless.

When he finally opened the door, clad in that ridiculous purple suit of his, he wasted no time getting to work. He was short and stocky, but quite fit. He had short, brown hair, styled into a wave at the front. When he looked into your eyes, it felt like he was staring into soul with those piercing blue eyes. I had to admit, without those purple suit ‘s of his, he’d be really hot. I once walked in on him changing, and, man, I had a difficult time looking away.

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We proceeded to have sex the next night. (This was before Rose and I were dating. The gang doesn’t really think pedophilia is bad, it’s just natural, only thing is important is consent.)

I was pulled from my trance by Austin speaking to me. “Amber. Amber” he said, shaking me, “are you okay?”

“Wha, oh yea, Totally fine, just lose in thought.” Not a total like. “Well, I fixed him up, do you need anything else?” he asked.

“Just take him back, give him the closest room to Rose’s and make sure he’s comfy. I’m gonna go look for Rose.” I said, and turned to walk out of the room. I walked down the stairs and threw the door open and started running. What happened to them? I called Rose.

“What you want bitch?”

“Oh thank god, where the hell have you been?”

“Woah, language.”

“I’m serious here, where have you been. Emir was almost killed and you were no were to be found. Might be your fault since you had a bomb in your room.”

“Nah, that wasn’t my bomb, I had a pin grenade or whatever, that was a ticking bomb.”

“How do you know that, all the evidence was destroyed.”

“I heard ticking,” Rose said, and pulled their mouth close to my ear and whispered, “I do have great hearing after all, I know what you do in the dark.” I couldn’t help but laugh at that. What I do in the dark. Really?

“Well, I don’t so, feel free to tell me.” I said, trying to control my laughter. “When did you get some wit?”

“I’ve always had a bunch of wit, I was just so quirky that I wanted to hide it so I could be more quirky.”

“Wow, your soooooooo cool. I am so intimidated by your overpowering quirkiness.” I said into the phone. “Where are you now?”

They hung up the phone as I felt hands around my waist. What the-.

“Hi Bee.”

“Rose!” I exclaimed as I turned around to see their smirk, which they quickly tried to high. “What was that, you scared me.”

“Oh shut up, don’t be like that.”

“Well, I bet Emir want’s to see you. And why aren’t you worried about him?” I asked.

“The keyword in your sentence was almost. So Emir isn’t dead, why should I be worried?” Rose asked, naive as ever. Well, naive wasn’t the right word, I don’t think they’re naive. Rose is just, uhm, something. I’ve learned to read people pretty well, and Rose is the only one I can’t ever read, despite knowing them so well. It’s unsettling , if nothing else.

“Because, a brood mother went after him, probably to get to you, yes, but that doesn’t make it any less scary for him and I. And, you weren’t there! Where were you?” I almost threw the word’s at them. Their face became a line, neutral, unnervingly unsettled. “A broodmother, where are they?”

“I killed the thing, but-” I hesitated. “She, she tried to put Emir on the ground to walk across my fire.” I started crying. I felt the tears roll down my face, and I felt pathetic. Such a powerful ability, but an awful sense of how to use it. “I should've just, like, put the fire in her throat or something.”

“Amber,” Rose said softly, “Look at me Amber.” I did.

“You were in the middle of battle, you can’t make these decisions in the heat of battle. You follow your instincts. I’ve never met anyone who is perfect in battle. No one. And Emir ultimately survived due to your quick action. You may not have made the perfect decision, but you still won.” Rose smiled at me.

I sobbed, “C’mon, Austin is taking Emir back to base, I’m tired, let’s go home.”

“Good idea, that way I can kiss you without people staring.” Rose smirked, probably smug that they got to give a hypocritical speech.