Chapter Text
Numb. She felt totally numb. She wasn’t dead, but she definitely wasn’t alive either. She was just...existing. The only thing she knew was eternal darkness. No fear, no pain, nothing.
What was happening? Where was she? Why was this happening to her? She knew none of the answers to the many questions rambling in her head.
Beth was trying to reach for something, anything, but nothing could be found. She was lost in a sinister void with no way to escape. The silence was deafening, the darkness blinding. She knew she should be afraid, but the fear would not present itself.
Slowly, a faint light became visible, and Beth began to regain feeling once again. She still felt as if she couldn’t move, but it was definitely improvement. Sound began to fill her ears again. She caught a slight scent of the grim room she knew she was being held prisoner in.
But when she came to, she wasn’t herself.
“I trust that you will now cooperate,” the ugly deformed man said in his sinister tone.
“I will do whatever needs to be done.”
“Good. Now follow me please. We have work to do.”
She was released from her chains and followed the man into the hallway, the two others falling behind them. “Work?”
“Yes. Divination is your gift. We need you to find some things for us.”
“What do you need me to find?”
They eventually entered another room with a large round table in the center that had a map on it along with Runes and stones for her to use.
“For starters,” Lawrence began, “the current location of the Hero Legion’s headquarters. There were originally ten different locations scattered around the world and now there is only one, and it’s in a new location that we haven’t found. That’s your job.”
Beth strode up to the table and looked over the stones and Runes, both ways she would be able to find what she was looking for. She opted to use the stones over the Runes and began to focus on them, find what they needed.
It didn’t take long. “Asheville, North Carolina. It’s hidden near the mountains.”
“Excellent,” a new voice chimed in. Beth turned around to see an older looking man wearing a dark turtleneck sweater with a leather trench coat. He was thin and had gray hair, and he almost resembled a rat. “I appreciate your help. But now we must make preparations for our journey.”
“Journey?” Beth asked.
“Yes. We have to save the world from the very thing that is going to destroy it.”
“And what is that?”
The man walked up to her and his eyes bore right into her soul. These were the eyes of a damaged man, a destroyed individual. And the scariest part was that she could almost see the tiniest bit of humanity left in there. “All the gifted individuals and heroes of the world. They need to be destroyed.”
“But...we are gifted individuals.”
“I know,” the man said while flashing a wicked grin. “A means to an end. Thank you for your help.”
In one swift moment, the man was around her, one arm around her neck and the other on her head. She barely had a second to struggle in his grasp before he used unimaginable strength and twisted, then proceeding to drop the body onto the floor.
Today was Thomas’s first training session with Minho in firebending. He was supposed to do another few lessons with Brenda, but Thomas accidentally firebended in the cafeteria out of nowhere, slightly burning Aris in the process. Luckily Aris knew how to heal burns - a waterbending technique Thomas definitely wanted to learn. But the point was that Thomas needed to learn how to control the fire so he doesn’t hurt anyone else. He knows Minho almost burned down his house when he first discovered it. Thomas doesn’t even want to imagine what he would be capable of if he lost control. Which is why Ava had set them up in a fireproof training room. Better to be safe than sorry.
“Okay greenie. Let’s do this,” Minho said.
“Minho, I’ve been here for months. Why do you still call me greenie?”
“Because I know it pisses you off,” Minho teased.
“Okay, so what’s first?” Thomas asked, disregarding his friend’s remark.
“Fire meditation. It sounds lame, and it is compared to the rest of it. But without the basics, you’ll never be able to do this.”
Minho held his palm out and let a flame appear. He did the same with his other hand and started to demonstrate what he could do with his powers, like he was the star of his own show. The flames were dancing around him, sometimes greatly increasing, other times flowing through the air delicately. “Fire was always deemed dangerous, and it is, but it instilled so much fear in people for how much damage it could create that people forget it can also be beautiful. It is its own art form in a way.”
“Who knew you were such a sap.”
“Oh, the greenie has jokes now huh?” Minho chuckled as he stopped his demonstration. “Okay, let's start. Imagine yourself next to a big fire or volcano. You want to think of the fire in your veins. Picture your body as a black figure and the only thing you can see are your glowing veins. With each breath you take, think of your veins getting hotter and brighter.”
Thomas closed his eyes and followed Minho’s instructions as well as he knew how. He created the image in his head. The silhouette of his body and the glowing veins. The veins growing brighter, hotter. Bigger. “Alright. Got it.”
“Good work greenie. Next step is ‘hot hands’. Tacky name, I know. I would have come up with a cooler name. Anyway, make it look like you are holding a ball with your hands. Imagine your body a pitch black color and your veins glowing orange like fire. Get them hotter until they are steaming. Now think of your body returning to its normal color, and your veins stop glowing, but are still orange and hot.
“The orange light, which is your chi, then slowly comes out of the veins and into the palms of your hands. The chi should be hot as it makes its way into your hands. Your hands hot yet?”
They were. His hands felt fiery hot! When he nodded, Minho continued.
“The trick with firebending is that it comes from the breath, not your muscles. The breath becomes energy in your body and the energy extends past your limbs, becoming fire.”
Minho moved his arms and let out a small stream of fire that quickly diminished, and Thomas was able to too. “That was awesome!” Thomas exclaimed. “What else are we doing today?”
“You’re going to repeat that over and over until I say so.”
“What?!” Thomas asked disappointedly. “But Minho - ”
“If you don’t get it under control you can hurt someone near you,” Minho said sternly. “This is serious Thomas. Fire is one of the most dangerous abilities to have. Aris got burned already, who’s next? Teresa? Chuck? Newt? You want to hurt them?”
Thomas shook his head. No, he didn’t want to hurt anyone. He felt bad enough as it is that her burned Aris, even though it was only minor. And if he burned Chuck or Teresa he would never forgive himself.
And if he burned Newt...Thomas would probably die right there on the spot.
So he listened to Minho and kept practicing the same techniques over and over again, ensuring that he would never accidentally hurt anyone again.
To pass the time until Thomas was done with his training, Newt decided to busy himself and play Scrabble with Alby, Harriet, and Teresa on the coffee table. Which was a death wish as Alby was the master at this game. Newt was in third place, Teresa failing in last place. Even so, he hated this game.
But Newt was only doing this to keep Alby busy. He didn’t want him to think about Miyoko right now. Tomorrow would have been there two year anniversary if she hadn’t broken up with him at the end of summer. Alby’s been pretty good about the break up though. Only around holidays and special dates like their anniversary is when he would get upset.
This is also why that everyone agreed that this Valentine’s day - which was a week away - they would spend together as a group so Alby wouldn’t feel left out. As much as he’d like to spend the whole day with Thomas, he could never do that to his best friend. Besides, he and Thomas could always go out another night. Plus, Newt wasn’t too big on cliche’ romantic candlelight dinners. He’d prefer a night staying in with Chinese takeout and watching a movie in bed.
“Alright, I quit,” Teresa declared, getting up from her spot on the floor. Something about her the past couple of days has been off. She hasn’t seemed as focused as she usually is and acts like there’s always something lurking around the corner. Newt got up and followed her into the kitchen to find out what was bothering her. “Teresa, you alright?”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Just dealing with stuff is all.”
“I’m pretty good at dealing with stuff,” Newt said as he leaned on the counter.
Teresa was silent for a moment, contemplating whether or not to say what was bothering her, but she took a couple of steps closer to Newt. “Do you remember what Thomas told us about his powers? Like how fast he can learn them?”
“Yeah, Exemplars can master the buggin’ elements bloody fast.”
“That’s not all, though. He also mentioned that they rise in times of danger. It’s like his powers are growing strong to face an incoming threat.”
Newt stopped to think that over for a moment. Thomas bended the water one night out of nowhere, but that wasn’t a big deal really. But the other day he suddenly had flames coming out of his hands. So the ability to firebend came because something bad was going to happen.
Oh no.
“The vision. Sonya’s vision.” He didn’t think it would be happening so soon. He’s heard Sonya tell him about visions that take place decades away. He figured he wouldn’t have to deal with this right now.
“That’s what I’ve been thinking,” Teresa said. “It might be happening soon.”
“But Sonya can also make people’s powers stronger, so that could be it too.”
“I hope that’s the case.”
Newt was hoping the same thing. He was the one who told Thomas that they didn’t have to worry, and now, he was the one worrying.
Thomas came home a few hours later. Minho decided to do a few more lessons with him, going only as far as making a flame, but that was it for today. They could start fresh in the morning.
Brenda greeted him as soon as he walked in, telling him dinner would be ready in fifteen minutes. Perfect, just enough time to take a shower. Then he would eat and he and Newt would stay over the blonde’s room tonight. A perfect plan.
Which is why he was surprised to see the blonde sitting on his bed when he entered his room. “Hey, I didn’t know you were gonna be here still.”
“Yeah I wanted to wait for you.”
Thomas crossed the distance between them and planted a quick kiss to the blonde’s cheek and was getting ready to head to the bathroom. “Thanks babe. I’m just gonna shower and then we can eat and we’ll cuddle watching Doctor Who until we fall asleep.” Since Thomas was showing Newt Star Wars, he deemed it only fair that Newt got to picked what they watched some nights.
“Thomas, wait,” Newt called after him following Thomas into the bathroom.
“Yeah?” he asked as he threw his shirt over his head.
“I just...we should...uh…how do I say this,” Newt sighed.
“Newt, whatever it is you can tell me. You know that.”
While Newt was struggling to find his words, Thomas turned on the shower and stripped away the rest of his clothes. He thought by the time he got the water warm enough, Newt would be ready to say what he had to say. But Thomas looked back over to him and saw the conflict on his face, the worry in his eyes. “Hey, come here,” he said as he pulled Newt closer to him. “What’s wrong?”
Newt buried his face in the crook of Thomas’s neck and let out a soft sigh. “I’m just worried about Sonya’s vision. I know I’m the one who told you not to worry about it, but it feels like it’s gonna be happening soon.”
It’s been a while since Thomas thought about that. The thought of Newt in danger terrified him. It made him never want to leave his side. But it was going to happen regardless, whether or not he stuck by Newt’s side all hours of the day. They would have to face this threat head on. But they would do it together.
“Newt, listen. I’ve been thinking about it a lot too. But like you said, we can’t change the future. We can’t avoid fate. But whatever happens, we’ll protect one another. Always.”
Newt moved his head away from Thomas’s neck and they stared into each other’s eyes. Thomas could feel the love, the bond, and the trust they shared radiating behind those dark orbs. They were each other’s sanctuary, their safe haven. Newt was like the missing puzzle piece in Thomas’s heart, and Thomas managed to ignite the fire in Newt’s heart that had long ago burned out. He cupped Newt’s cheek with one of his hands rubbing his thumb across his face and went in for a tender kiss. Newt was more than happy to reciprocate, placing his hands against Thomas’s waist and pulling him close.
Eventually, Newt’s clothes came off as well and Thomas pulled the blonde into the shower with him. They just stood there, warm water cascading over them, pressed up against each other running their hands slowly across one another’s bodies. Thomas was rubbing his hands in circles on Newt’s sides while the blonde was running his hands through the brunette’s hair. Lips connected to share in sweet moments of bliss.
There was an uncertain danger that was awaiting them, but to dwell on what couldn’t be changed nor prevented would only ruin the present moment. So Thomas would forget all about and just stay here in this moment of ecstasy.