Village

Alana and Kiel stood together against the dangerous, armed men in front of them. Trying to look unfazed.

Soon, the men continued with their attacks, although all of them are visibly tired from the ruckus. Each man started falling one by one, when the leader saw that they might lose from Kiel and Alana, he stood no choice.

"Enough." The leader behind exclaimed, his other arm was limping but he managed to pull out a remote control with only one button to press with his other arm, "I'm tired of playing with you mutts. Leave us alone, we have placed bombs at random homes on our way here, if I press this button... you know what's going to happen." he chuckled menacingly.

"He's obviously bluffing," Kiel told to Alana while still not breaking his gaze to the so-called leader.

"I wish, but no, he's telling the truth." Alana worriedly says as she looks at the man using her ability.

The leader ordered the four men to pick up the bags filled with stones. Then, they went to the entrance to help and wake their other members. Kiel and Alana remained where they were standing because the leader is watching them. One single foul movement could cause serious casualties.

"We'll be taking our leave, see you next time!" He said as they all get ready to go. The masked men are at the entrance while Kiel and Alana are still standing at the corner of the storehouse. "Fine. Drop the controller now and leave." Alana calmly said. The man tilted his head, "Hmm.. you don't think I'd be that dumb now do you?" He looked at the controller and evilly smiled, "Besides, for sure you and the guards will try to capture us once we are out of here. We would need a distraction."

At that moment Alana knew what's about to happen. Everything happened really slow to her at this point. She tried to run as fast as she can to reach him. She will just take seconds to do so, but pressing that button takes just a millisecond.

She won't be able to stop him.

"Stop!" A loud voice echoed around the entire storeroom.

The next thing they knew, they can't move.

The man's thumb was on top of the button.

Alana was nowhere near him yet.

The other men were also statued to their positions now.

All except Kiel.

Alana watched him unaware that people are now immobile. She remembers that this was Kiel's ability.

'Could this be his doing? But I thought he cannot use it?'

Kiel looked at someone walking near the entrance. Alana's gaze turned there too.

There's Jolene. Her eyes glimmering in silver. Jolene walked and faced the man holding the button. The man obviously wanted to move but he can't seem to do so. "Drop it," Jolene commanded in a straight cold expression.

"No." The man gritted his teeth while staring at Jolene. Jolene did not respond, the man dropped his controller to the ground. "What?" The man was in total confusion as he lost control over his body. Jolene knelt down to pick up the controller he dropped.

Unfortunately, her ability betrayed her. Her eyes stopped glimmering without her knowing. As soon as Jolene's power was off, everyone was able to move again. All, including Alana, dropped on the floor as they didn't manage to balance themselves from their supposed movement from earlier.

However, it's not just Alana who can move back again, it was also the masked men. Especially the man in front of Jolene. He immediately drew a small knife, hidden from his waist and aimed to stab her.

Jolene looked up and saw what was coming, she covered herself with her arms and closed her eyes.

But luckily, nothing happened to her as one of the village men caught the man's arm and had it twisted behind his back. The village warrior also held his other arm which made the man scream in pain as it was already broken. Then, Kiel pulled Jolene, "Jolene! Are you okay?" he worriedly asked. She nodded, "Sorry I was gone for a bit, I called for help." She said, referring to the villagers that are now handling the masked men.

"Your ability, it was exceptional." Alana came towards them smiling. Jolene smiled back and gave Alana a pat on the shoulder, "Says the badass fighter, how are you?"

"I'm completely fine, thanks to the both of you. You saved a lot of people tonight, I would not have known what could have happened without your help."

"We just helped, you are the one who stood up quickly and saved your people," Kiel noted. The three of them walked out and saw the masked men kneeling on the ground, all tied up, surrounded by the village warriors. The chief of the village was also there, he unmasked the man who was the leader. "Tell me who you are, you and your men." The chief told him. "We are just researchers who discovered that benitoite can be found in this place" Alana was about to step into the interrogation to tell that the man is lying but the chief suddenly slapped the man. "I will know if you're lying so don't bother."

The man looked up at the chief after being slapped, he gave a piercing look at him before he spat out blood, "Fine, we are Bolton's men. We grew tired of him not wanting to share your location with the rest of us, that old man probably wanted to keep this secret until his death. So I decided to follow him secretly to here, and now I found where the benitoites come from."

"He didn't tell any of you because he knew this would happen!" Alana couldn't help but speak out.

"Take them to the cell." The chief ordered their soldiers. The chief then walked to approach Alana, Kiel, and Jolene, "Thank you so much for protecting the village. We will take it from here, get some rest."

"I'll come with you father," Alana said. "No Alana, go home now. " that's what he only said before completely leaving. Alana scratched her head, "Weird, he always let me come with him. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Maybe he is trying to show you that they will be fine without you?" Jolene quirkily smiled, but all the reaction she got is empty stares from Kiel and Alana so she sighed, "Yeah, we'll also get some rest. See you." Then Kiel mildly grabbed her back in the direction of their hut. They departed ways with Alana and others.

Jolene and Kiel are now walking back to their hut. "Does it hurt?" Jolene asked, pointing at Kiel's bruise on the face. "Nah." He replied but he moved away in fear that Jolene would touch it. "You and Alana are really good at fighting, I wish I was like that too."

"Fighting can be learned, but the bravery you showed there? Man, you faced him even if you know you can't really control your ability!"

"And it almost cost me my life"

"But you saved the villagers from the bombs. No one else could have stopped that." Jolene smiled at him, he smiled back. They finally reached the hut and they are now back lying on their mats. Both of them gazing at the same ceiling they were looking at a few hours ago. Just like what they were doing earlier before the incident.

Once again, Jolene broke the silence, "Anyway, I've been wondering how you learned to fight. You didn't seem like an amateur who hasn't fought before. You managed to withhold six men! I mean, I know Alana had trained here, but you... "

Jolene waited for Kiel to speak, but he remained quiet, he looked up at the ceiling again trying to avoid her stare. Jolene sided, facing Kiel, "You didn't just land on the orphanage did you?"

Kiel sighed and looked back at her, he shifted his body in her direction too, "Right. I was... rescued."

Jolene gasped, Kiel obviously shifted his mood. "Tell me what happened to you, right after the night we escaped."

"It doesn't matter."

"You'd feel better if you share it. Have you ever told anyone?"

Kiel looked down to think, 'no one knows, not even Troy...'

"So that's a no." Jolene assumed after him being quiet for a while.

"You won't stop until I tell you, will you?"

"Okay, you don't have to share it if it's too hard for you. I just wanted to know what my friend has been through after managing to escape..." she murmured. She closed her eyes, convinced that that would be the end of their conversation.

Kiel sighed and laid down straight with eyes wide open, "That night, when I went to Vann to take him to the escape. We managed to run out of the orphanage. We were running towards the gate, but the guards were able to see us, they ran after us... but even so, we were quick we even managed to reach outside the gate..."

Jolene looked at him closely as she listens to what is next.

"...after a few steps away from the gate, Vann was shot."