"Are you sure they won't kill each other?" Ari asked Jack as he entered the camouflaged room at the top of the battle room wall. "They don't have the strength to kill each other," Jack answered as he plopped himself onto Ari's lap.
"Uh, excuse me."
"Come on, Ari, those kids took a lot out of me."
"No, you're fat and obese and you're crushing my legs to Jello."
Jack clutched his heart in mock pain. "Oh, that hurts Ari, I'm only 160 pounds. I can't believe you want me to be underweight."
Ari rolled her eyes and slapped him playfully. "Get up."
"Make me."
Ari smiled and brought her face closer to his. Their noses lightly touched. Suddenly she said, "Finn seems a little bit too compliant."
Jack sighed. "Way to ruin the moment, Ari."
"I'm sorry."
"No, you're not."
She chuckled softly, "Yeah, you're right, I'm not."
"But now that you mention it, Finn hasn't been fighting as much as I thought he would. He did try to run away, I would think he would be opposed to the idea of coming back."
"So he just sat back while Lia threw a fit?"
"Basically. Lia seems more of the fighter and Finn seems to be more of a planner." Jack paused, a sudden idea coming to him. "Finn is a planner," he said slowly. "What if this is all part of his plan. Maybe he wanted to come back. But why? What could he possibly gain from coming back here?"
Ari and Jack gazed into each others eyes as they realized the answer.
"Strength."
"Now we know what he wants, but we don't know what he wants to do with it," Ari said.
"What if he's another Damian?" Jack mused, clenching his fists.
"No, he likes Lia too much. She'll be there to keep him in line. Hopefully by the time they get their rafki he'll learn not to abuse his power when they split up."
"Or they could stay together and end up getting married
like us." Jack waggled his eyebrows.
"Do you see the death glare that Lia is giving Finn?"
"All I see is you."
Ari laughed, "You are SO cheesy."
"Again, way to ruin the moment."
"Awww, poor you."
Jack sniffled. "I know."
Ari smiled and stroked his jaw line, leaning for another kiss.
"SHUT UP!" screamed Lia from the battle room below.
Ari's head shot up as Jack rolled his eyes and rolled off her lap. "THOSE DAMN KIDS!" he cursed, angry another moment had been ruined.

I leaned against one of the many obstacles in the battle room with my arms crossed in front of my chest. I was busy glaring at Finn's head. He hadn't looked at me straight in the eye ever since we came back. We had had our fingerprints and irises scanned into the security system of the Training Center. The Training Center. This godforsaken place was called The Training Center. Could these people be any more descriptive? This battle room, the clinic, the apartments, even the other battle rooms, was all part of this damn school. How far it extended I don't know, but I do know it takes a lot of money to build a basement in Houston, especially a three or more floor basement. Well, I guess since the ocean has been receding in the past 60 years, the sea level is at an all time low. I wonder why that is. I haven't touched my touch-screen in…in…uh…oh my god. Where is my touch screen? WHERE THE HELL IS MY TOUCH SCREEN?! That touch screen in my LIFE! I am deprived of information and hopelessly lost without it. I can just feel my brain cells slowly dying from the immediate lack of information. Yes, I am officially freaking out. And guess whose fault it is? Yup. Finn. I glared at him more intensely now. I would glare and glare until Ibored a hole through his teeny tiny little—
"What are you squinting for?"
I replied smoothly, with anger and threatening undertones, "I accuse you."
He sighed and asked, as if he'd gotten used to hearing me say that,
"What did I do this time?"
"Murder."
"What?"
"You heard me."
"Who did I kill?"
"My brain cells."
"What?" he asked me, incredulous.
"If I become dumber, it's all your fault."
"Why is everything my fault?"
"Because I'm the victim. You don't expect me to blame myself do you?"
"Well, you could take responsibility for your actions once in a while."
"My actions? I'm the one who tried to get away from Jack before I was dragged back to this damn place."
"The way I see it, it's your fault."
"My fault?"
"Yes, your fault. If you hadn't insisted on leaving for Tapioca House that night, you never would have almost been killed. Then I would have never found out they were assassins, and I never would have tried to run away. If I hadn't tried to run away, wewouldn't be here having this conversation. So yes, it's your fault. I blame you."
"I can't believe this! They took away my family and my best friend. You expect me not to be angry?"
"It's not like they cared about you in the first place."
That struck a nerve, a huge, painful, swelling nerve.
"What did you say?" I asked through gritted teeth.
"Did you really think that your parents cared about you? Isn't that why your parents were so quick to give you up? They probably weren't even there to say goodbye. And Xerxi? Give me a break. Last time I checked, she wanted to break your neck. So don't give me any crap about missing your family, because you don’t miss them. You didn't even care enough to establish a bond with them. You just want pity. You want a reason for people to pity you. So you make up this story about losing your family, and all these bad things are happening to you. You are a selfish and pathetic bitch."

All I saw was red, an infuriating blood red.
"SHUT UP!" I screamed. I wanted to kill him. I don't know why. Maybe because I had a feeling he was right but I didn't want to admit it. So I did something I regretted. I punched him in the face. He staggered back, hands cupping his nose.
"You self centered-"he mumbled through his hands. I was already running at him and aiming for another hit to the face. "Oh, you wanna play that way huh?" He spread out his hands and unleashed a large sound wave. I actually saw it coming at me, a ripple through the air. I stopped abruptly, shut my eyes, and covered my ears. I felt it hit my body. I gasped for air. When I looked up, Finn was there, ready to punch my face out. I somehow flew back. I felt the wind under me, carrying me back. Finn grabbed my ankle as I soared through the air, above the ground and toward the ceiling. I strained under the added weight. I growled and frantically tried to shake him off. I turned the wind full force on him, but he dragged me down. Apparently, anything I wanted the wind to do, all I had to do was think it and it would do it. But while I was trying to push down with as much force as I could muster with my wind Finn still held on. Somehow, he let loose another sound wave, it screwed up my concentration and I lost all control of the wind. It started blowing this way and that and we were tossed around like rag dolls. We fell off the air current and plummeted straight for the ground. I didn't know what was going on and just held tight to Finn, hoping he would hit the ground before me. I know I'm selfish, but I wanted to live. Alas, it was not so. My vision blacked out and exploded in fireworks as I hit the ground first. Surprisingly, the ground was not as hard as I thought it would be, but still pretty hard. Finn's hands were wrapped around my neck as he restricted the air to my lungs. I growled and my hands around his neck and dug in my nails. He flinched and grunted in pain. I could see his eyes slowly glaze over and close through my own drooping eyelids. Soon, I would run out of air…but I can't lose….

Cool wind crept over my hands, then almost immediately it turned into red hot searing pain. A sudden weight was lifted from my neck. Wet drops fell on my face as pressure increased on my stomach. I opened my eyes. Long red streaks of open flesh covered my hands and forearms. Then I saw wisps of air circling my arms in a mist. I tried to control them and make them go away, but it wasn't listening to me. I tried and tried. I tried and tried. I couldn't get the puffs of air to leave me alone. My breath rate started increasing as my heart sped up. My arms felt so tired, they just wanted to lay down. That's when I realized, I wasn't on the ground. There was no where to lay my arms down. I was floating about three feet above the ground. "Are you through killing each other?"
I turned my head to see Jack standing over me. He lifted Finn off me effortlessly by the collar of Finn's shirt. I saw Finn struggle, but it was as if he was bound by something invisible. Jack dropped him on the ground. Finn grunted but didn't protest too loudly.
Jack turned to me. He bent down and lowered his face closer to mine. "Now are you going to behave?"
Yeah, right. Like I was going to behave.
I nodded my head.
Jack smirked, "I don't believe you." I dropped to the ground with a thud. I tried getting up, but I couldn't move. My whole body was pinned down by the sheer pressure of the air around me. Every breath I managed to suck in was like pins and needles in my lungs. I glared at Jack. I tried struggling, trying to break free, but the more I moved the harder it was to breathe. Now I’m not going to try killing myself, I'm not that stupid.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The tingling feeling around my wrists was one of the weirdest and annoying feelings I have ever felt. It was so weird. I can't describe it, but I’m going to try anyway. It was like an electric shock constantly keeping my wrists together. No, it wasn't actually touching me, but if I moved more than necessary it shocked me, kind of. Jack knelt and looked me in the eye.
"Are YOU ready to behave now? No running away or sudden moves."
I snorted. "Tell that to Lia. She practically starts every fight."
"I HEARD...uuuhh..." I heard Lia gasp for air. She was lying face up with her arms outstretched, and she was breathing heavily. Well that was weird; there was nothing on top of her.
"Now that you're BOTH behaving, I'd like you to listen to me yell at you." Jack stood, extending to his full height, took a deep breath and--
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? YOU ALMOST KILLED EACH OTHER! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING TOGETHER! TOGETHER! NOT KILLING EACH OTHER! THE KILLING PART DOESN'T COME UNTIL AFTER YOU'VE COMPLETED YOUR TRAINING! WHY ARE YOU STARTING NOW? I AM VERY VERY VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN! THAT WAS THE MOST IDIOTIC THING YOU BOTH HAVE EVER DONE! IT BLOWS MY MIND THAT YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO KILL EACH OTHER TO GET ALONG WITH EACH OTHER! IS THAT THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE IN COMMON, THE HATE FOR EACH OTHER?"
Jack screamed, and jumped, and waved his arms during his rant. In retrospect, he looked hilarious. But at that moment it was terrifying. As he yelled and screamed, his skin turned a red-orange tint and his eyes turned blood red. The ring of tingles grew tighter and tighter around my wrists until they singed my skin. Damn, he was scary when he was mad.

Jack's skin glowed like an ember. It glowed as if there was a fire underneath his skin. It was cool and terrifying to look at. But as he screamed, the pressure on my body increased and it grew hotter, a lot hotter. Suddenly I wasn't seeing Jack, I was seeing fire. That scared the hell out of me. Fire was one of the two things I feared and despised, the other was cockroaches. My breath became quicker and shallower as my heart sped up. Then as abruptly as it had started, Jack stopped yelling. All the flare was gone, the pressure was gone. This guy was scary temperamental. It was like handling dynamite.
"Now," said Jack, "you will report to your apartment where you will learn to live and work together, by yourselves. I will be in the next apartment and I should not have to go over to your apartment because of bad behavior. Am I clear?"
I gulped and nodded. Finn did the same.
"Good. Now, I’m being generous and giving you the rest of the day off. Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock sharp you will be here and ready to work, a lot. There are maps by the door in your apartment but you'll soon get the layout of the building in your head. Now, go. No pushing, shoving, cussing, kicking or any other bodily movements that will hurt each other and start another fight."
Finn and I slowly got on our feet and made our way to our apartment without as much as a glance at each other. Jack followed behind. When I closed the door to the apartment, Finn was already in his room. I sighed and got my belongings for my much needed shower.

Jack watched them close the door to their living quarters, and then opened the door to his own. He brewed himself a cup of coffee and sat down on his couch. This was his teacher's apartment. The one he really lived in with Ari was on the other side of the courtyard. It was also more luxurious than this simple 3-room place, but he needed to stay close to Lia and Finn. Besides, he might be able to move back to their place after Lia and Finn made acquaintances with the new pair scheduled to come next week. Those would be Ari's students, so she'll be out of their 5-room apartment or 'home' for a while too. He hoped more pairs would follow, even if it did mean Damian becoming a teacher and him being overworked. This building needed to be filled up, it had too many spare rooms.
Jack inhaled the scent of his coffee. He listened to the banging doors and the raised voices of the children next door. He shook his head and sipped his coffee. Those kids, he thought, they are way too temperamental.