Water (17 page)

"There was a small earthquake while you were in there."  Micah looked down at me.

"Small is an understatement."  Cato walked in, carefully dodging broken bits of dishware.  He came to stand next to Micah and they both shot accusing glances at me.

"What?  It’s not my fault.  There was no other way to plant that seed.  What do you expect?"

"You were planting a seed?  A bit overkill, I venture to guess."  Cato turned to look at Micah.  "Perhaps you need to give her a few options with each task.  Solutions that might not bring down the entire Chakra."

Like Cato had done anything of the sort with the fish.  He told me to go it alone; every Gaia had their own way of doing it. 
Hypocrite.

Cato leaned over, looking at the pot while I picked myself off the ground with what little dignity I had left.  "I think it should be placed in the greenhouse – do you mind, Kaitlyn?"

"As a matter of fact, yes.  Take it yourself."  I headed for the door, carefully pulling a small shard of glass from my backside.  I had enough of both of them.

Micah took the pot from Cato, yelling after me, "We aren’t finished yet!"

I yelled back even louder, "Well I’m finished with you!" 

I stomped out, forcing my legs to work, and started toward his room.  Our room.  It still felt more like his room.  I turned to find somewhere else, then paused.  I didn’t know where to go – there was no place I could really claim as mine.  Maybe the lab – I spent more time there than the medics.  Standing there, frozen, Micah caught up to me.

"We have one more training session to do," he said.  "I’d rather just get it over with."

"I don’t think so," I snapped.  "You went overboard with that one."

"Look, I’m not going to argue with you.  Right now I’m responsible for your training, and I won’t skimp on it just because you can’t handle the cold."

"I can’t handle it?  I can’t
handle
it?"  I turned to look at him, eyes blazing.  "Your freakin’ plant grew, didn’t it?"

"Yeah, at the expense of the rest of the Chakra, and everyone in it!"

That did it.  I grabbed the pot out of his hands, raised it above my head and released it.  The pot shattered on the ground, dirt flying everywhere.  "There.  Now the damn plant matches your damn Chakra."

Micah cursed as he bent down to retrieve the budding seedling.  The noise of shattering ceramic drew a crowd who was already on edge due to the earthquake.  Heads peeped out of doorways and Cato emerged from the kitchen.  I turned to glare at the intruders.  "Well, do you see sparks yet?!"

Micah hissed, "Kaitlyn, let’s continue this somewhere else.  You’re scaring them."

"No, Micah.  They all paid to see sparks.  I’m just giving them what they want."  I snatched the small plant out of his cupped hands and held it in my own.  I didn’t know exactly what I planned to do with it, but a fraction of a second later the plant went up in flames.  Startled, I threw it away from me, toward some of the onlookers.  They gasped and leaped back.  Just as quickly as the crowd appeared, it dispersed.

I stared at the smoldering plant on the floor, nursing my singed hands. 

Micah frowned, looking at me.  "How did you do that?"

"I … I, don’t think I did."

Cato stepped forward.  "I did.  I got rid of the source of your argument, along with your audience."

"Believe me, Cato.  The plant is not the source of trouble here."  I said as I stared at Micah.

"I’m not so sure about that.  Now that you two have stopped yelling at each other, why don’t you go talk things through?  I think the greenhouse would be a good place, nice and quiet."

I looked skeptical.

Micah sighed, "Your next task is set up in the greenhouse."

I glared at him.

He held up his hands innocently.  "All I’m asking is for you to take a look.  If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to."

I looked between Cato and Micah, accusing them each silently before meeting Micah’s eyes.  "Come on then, I’ll kick this task’s ass and then I’ll kick yours." 

The greenhouse sat apart from the main building, opposite of the gardens.  It wasn’t a large structure, maybe only three times the size of Micah’s bedroom. 

"The room has elevated levels of oxygen," Micah said before I could comment on the change in the air.  "We recently locked it down so none of the oxygen the plants produce can get out.  It’s a makeshift hyperbaric chamber in here.  He pointed to a gauge on the wall.  It is approaching dangerous levels of oxygen toxicity."

I shook my head.  "Oxygen toxicity.  Is that a thing?"

"A very real thing."

"And what am I supposed to do?"

"Reverse it.  Make the air breathable."

I crossed my arms over my chest and thought for a minute.

"You should know I’m not really sure how long we can stay in here safely.  It could be a few minutes; it could be a few days."

"So you are going to stick around this time?"  I drawled.

"Well, yeah," he said.  "This time I am the distraction."

"
You
are the distraction?" 

"Yes."  He took a step toward me as he began unbuttoning his shirt.

I took a step back, wondering if he was gearing up for a fight or … something else.

"So how about it?"  He dropped his shirt on the ground leaving his chest bare. 

"How about what?" 

"The air, your task.  It begins now."

Oh, yeah
, I had already forgotten.  He was good at this.  I was still backing up and inevitably ran into a table holding several plants.  The pots clinked together but nothing broke.  He reached out for my waist and I grabbed his wrist to try to stop him.  I didn’t put much effort into it because for every ounce of me that wanted him to stop, another ounce wanted him to keep going.  Suddenly he had both hands around my waist and I was lifted up onto the table.  He forced his way in so he was standing between my legs.  I held my breath.  He leaned in for a kiss and I turned my head at the last second, dodging what would have been my downfall.  "You know I’ll fight you."

He smiled and bent closer to my ear.  "Kaitlyn, I wouldn’t expect anything less."

I reached down by my side, feeling for the closest pot. 
Found it.
  My strike was quick and I thought unexpected, but he reached up just in time to block it from hitting the side of his head.  The pot went crashing to the ground.  The attempt failed, but it did give me enough time to wriggle away from him.  Sliding backwards across the table, potted plants were scattered as I went.  I was almost to the other side when I felt him grab my ankle and pull me back toward him.  I looked back, conflicted.  I wanted so much to beat him at his own game, but I ached to give in and let him have his way with me.  Above all, I had the desire to make him pay.  I went with that last notion and I kicked out with my other leg, landing it square in his chest with enough force to send him stumbling backward.  Without pausing to watch him fall, I pulled myself the rest of the way across the table, putting a barrier in between us. 

Micah recovered, rubbing my shoe print out of his chest.  "That one stung."  He strutted closer to his side of the table.  I kept my guard up but started to consider my options for the air.  I had no clue how to go about it.  I looked around at the panes of glass surrounding us.  The fastest way to right the air had to be just breaking some panes.  I could create a storm; I did it once before with Cato.

"Oh," Micah interrupted.  "I forgot to tell you something." 

I looked at him, just in time to see him hopping over the table at me.  Without thinking I retreated under the table, making my way to the other side.  Micah’s acrobatics were practiced and smooth.  He landed in my previous spot as I was still struggling to pull myself out from under the table.  When I stood up and turned to face him he was waiting patiently.  I began to send waves of energy toward the sky.  Just as they reached the glass ceiling, it was blocked and bounced back, nearly knocking me on my ass.

"That is what I forgot to tell you," Micah said.  "There is a block.  You are limited to using only what is in this room."

My mouth went dry.  "Who is doing the blocking?"  I already knew who, and I knew where.  I followed the flows of the block and turned around to find Shawn standing outside the greenhouse, smiling at me.  My eyes blurred as tunnel vision set in.  It was a very long, dark tunnel that framed Shawn perfectly at the end, standing there waving at me.  I didn’t know if it was fear, anger, or the effects of the over-oxygenated air.  Probably all three.

I didn’t hear Micah move up behind me, but he was suddenly just there, whispering in my ear.  "I’m sorry."

Now I understood what he was trying to say last night.  Apology given, but not accepted. 

This was the ultimate betrayal.  "No."

Micah laid his hands on my shoulders.

I rejected him again, louder this time.  "No!"  I tried to shake him off but he just held on tighter.  I turned and slapped him in the face. 

"I have to continue the exercise."  He let go of me and took hold of my shirt at the bottom, lifting it over and off my head in one smooth movement.

"You are going to do this here?  Now?  In front of him!"  I gestured to Shawn angrily, wondering if he could hear us.  He could certainly see us.  "Why did you even let him back?"

"We needed to test you, to train you in some of the most difficult situations I could imagine for you."  He took a step closer.  "Stop me Kaitlyn.  Believe me; I want you to stop me.  Reverse the process.  Fix the air and the whole thing stops." 

I wanted to pull my hair out, "I didn't read the fucking book on air cycles yet."  Briefly, I considered not putting up a fight, and wondered if he would actually go through with it.  One glance at his eyes told me he might.  Micah really was capable of anything.  I began to feel nauseous.  He bent down, pulling on my shorts now.

This couldn't be happening.  This was the very man I couldn't eat breakfast without – how could he have gone from that to this?  I considered pleading, but nixed it quick.  I wasn't going to be reduced to that quite yet.

I looked over his head at Shawn again, who had a sick smile on his face.  That spurred me into action.  Holding Micah’s face steady, which was at my waist level, I reared my knee up hitting him directly in the chin.  I stumbled backward, limping.  He had a hard chin.  He stumbled more.  Not giving him a chance to recover, I picked up a flower pot and cracked it square over his head.  It didn’t knock him out but he was definitely having trouble.  I grabbed for another pot and started to aim it at one of the glass panes, but was stopped short when Micah grabbed both of my ankles and yanked my feet right out from under me.  That knocked the wind out of me and I struggled to breath.  He threw himself on top of me, pinning me down with his body weight.  Tears started to surface and I fought to hold them back.  I was becoming disoriented.  Perhaps Micah was having the same issues. 

There was a stabbing sensation in my ribs with every breath and something very sharp was poking me in the hip.  The pain helped keep me grounded; it told me this wasn't a dream – it was very real and I had to keep fighting back.  I felt around for whatever was stabbing me in the hip while Micah was busy trying to take off both our shoes with his feet.  Finally I felt the rock Micah had given to me in the gardens.  His body pressed it into me.  I squeezed it out from between us, remembering what he said about attracting animals.

I couldn’t send out for energy or help but maybe the rock could.  If I could magnify its strength, it might be strong enough to call something that was just desperate enough to break through the glass to get to it.  The only problem was, I had absolutely no energy left between my fight with Micah, the earthquake, and the cold spell.  I couldn’t get any help from outside of the room with Shawn’s wall.

Micah had me completely undressed now and was working on himself – there wasn’t much time left.  I looked around me for any help at all but it was hard to think straight.  I felt a small tingle on one of my ankles and twisted my head out from under Micah to see what it was.  Dirt from the pot I cracked over Micah’s head had made its way underneath my bandages and was working to heal the whip wound inflicted by Alex earlier.  That seemed like such a long time ago.

Finally things connected and I realized I could use energy from the potted soil to help me.  I called on it quickly, directing everything toward the little pebble I held in my hand.  It was the most difficult mental activity I remembered doing up to this point, and it was sloppy, very sloppy.  Micah must have felt something happen because he stopped what he was doing to look around.  "What are you doing?"

I ignored him and just kept the energy flowing into the rock.  It didn’t take long before we heard tiny clicks on the greenhouse roof.  We both looked up and I smiled.  Birds had started to gather.  A few of them were chipping at the glass with their beaks.  "How are you doing that?"  Micah popped up on his knees to look out at Shawn questioningly.  From outside Shawn shrugged his shoulders, then furrowed his brow in concentration.  I felt his wall get stronger, but it didn’t matter.  I kept pouring energy into the rock until I thought it would burst.  More and more birds began landing on the greenhouse.  The sun was soon blotted out by their little bodies and the noise of their beaks hitting the glass grew louder and louder. 
Yeah, buddy.  I'm about to  Hitchcock your ass.