Year 2269

The Colonel hefted and considered the book the Head Historian had placed in front of him just moments ago. The historian said it was about the Revolution, and it was very important that he read it. He scowled at the book, it was worn with the years with yellowed, wrinkled pages. He snorted with derision. If it held information about something as important as the Revolution, it would have been recorded in Records, not illegibly written on crinkled paper.

I don't have time for this riffraff. He snarled to himself. If the asinine historians want to waste their time about something clearly unimportant, it was up to them. They couldn't expect him to do the same. He threw the book down on his assistant's desk and turned away. He busied himself with some papers for a moment, then looked at the old book. With a disgusted snort he reached over, picked it up, and began to read.

Dear Reader,

I don't know what is being taught in your time, or what you even call our battle for mankind. I don't know who you are, what you do, or how you live, but that is no excuse for me not to tell you what I know. My name is Thorne, I'm one of the humans that lived in the wraeth's rule over earth. I saw what atrocities the wraeths committed and I know how they were stopped. This is an account of the battle, I hope it helps you in anyway it can.

Thorne

In the year 2099 some guests visited earth from a different planet. They were welcomed, and treated with respect and honour. For years the wraeths and humans got along well, but all that changed when the wraeths realized something, our potential. They were afraid of our potential to be so much better than they were, so they tried to annihilate us all. Some humans managed survived, but they didn't go unscathed. At first there wasn't much of a difference, it was hardly even noticed. Then it grew stronger and now some had powers. It was like fate was saying, 'Go ahead and get the creatures that did this to you. They deserve to die.' Many humans answered that call, but now all of them are dead. Now humans are a weak race struggling to survive. Humans had given up all hope of being free again, but then there was the prophecy.

They come, the ones born of fire, air, water, earth

The ones whose powers will vanquish all evil

Together the four must prevail

Or all will be lost, and chance gone

They come

We were coming, and the wraeths had better watch out.

XXXXXXX

"Hurry up Alandra, we're almost there," I sighed with exasperation. The wind whipped my red hair into my green eyes, and bit through my jacket. I shivered and rubbed my arms trying to warm them.

"You know how much I hate walking," Alandra whined as she drew near, "Why did we have to ditch the hover car anyway?"

"Yeah Thorne. This would have been much easier, and faster if we drove," Jake agreed as he struggled up the hill after Alandra.

I rolled my eyes. "They had a tracking device on the hover car. We had to ditch it."

Alandra flicked her blond hair away from her pretty blue eyes and pouted at me. "Jake is good with his hands, he could have got rid of the tracking device."

"It would have taken hours to find it," a deep masculine voice spoke from behind, "While Jake was still busy trying to find it, they would have found and killed us."

I turned and smiled gratefully at Jett. His answering grin sent my heart thumping so loudly I feared that the others would hear. I turned away, a blush mounting my cheeks. "Besides," I added quickly, "We're almost there."

Jake and Alandra moaned, their faces matching masks of exhaustion, pain, and grudging acceptance. Wearily they turned, and step by slow agonizing step they trudged along the path. Whenever one faltered, the other reached down and pulled the other forward. I smiled fondly at their struggling figures and strode after them.

"Honestly, those two aren't happy unless they have something to complain about." Jett muttered as we struggled up the hill together. His black hair billowed in the wind and into a messy disarray. My fingers itched to straighten it.

"That's not true," I immediately protested to distract myself. Jett looked at me with his eyebrows raised. "All right, they do like to complain, but they don't do it all the time." I allowed brightly.

"Yeah," He snorted, "Only 99.99 of the time."

I laughed. Man it was nice to be with Jett. Only with him was I able to forget our destiny, even if it was only for a moment. I shivered again as the cold air bit through my jacket.

"Why don't you turn this wind around us or something?" I asked through my chattering teeth.

"The same reason why Jake won't flatten this hill," Jett answered calmly, "It would draw to much attention to us. We want to enter unnoticed right?"

I glared at him, annoyed at myself. Of course, I should have realized that. I sighed as I thought about our powers that made us so special, the result of the radiation from the wraeth's original attack. Each of us controlled an element. Jake could control the earth; Alandra, water; Jett, air; and I could control fire. Our gifts were the only ones left. That was the reason why we were supposed to be able to destroy the wraeths, but I found it hard to believe that four young adults could destroy millions of monsters. Even so we were doing our best. We were heading towards the city where the wraeths kept their head base, so I hoped we were heading in the right direction.

"Stop." Jett ordered.

I blinked at him. "Stop what?"

"Stop worrying about how we are going to fulfill the prophecy." He answered firmly, "We will do it somehow, don't worry."

"How can you tell when I'm thinking about the prophecy?" I asked curious.

Jett smiled down at me, and my heart flipped over in my chest. "I just can."

I was about to question him further, when I realized we were at the top of the hill. I looked at the city and a burning sadness filled my heart. Gone were the skyscrapers and most of the buildings, gone were all the colours and happiness that had surrounded the city all those many years ago. All that remained were gray ruins.

A tear slid down my cheek as I looked at the state of the city and thought of the poor people living there. I looked at the others and saw my emotions reflected in their faces. I turned back to the city and took a deep steadying breath.

"All right guys, lets go."

Once we reached the city we wandered through the streets trying to find someone, anyone who might live there.

"Hello!" Alandra called, "Hello, is anyone here?"

No one answered.

"Maybe it's abandoned." Jake suggested after we had searched for an hour without any success.

"I don't think so," I frowned uncertainly, "I don't think we're searching in the right place."

"Where else would we look?" Jett demanded.

I was about to answer when I saw something moved in the corner of my eye. I turned swiftly, but didn't see anything. Appropriately spooked I backed away from the building.

"Thorne, what is it?" Jett asked, quietly getting to his feet.

"I don't know," I whispered, as Jake and Alandra joined us, "I think I saw something over there." I nodded towards the house.

We stared at it, but we didn't see anything.

"Maybe it was a cat?" Jake ventured weakly after a moment.

I was casting him a disapproving look when something appeared out of the doorway of the building. We watched it approach warily.

The figure shuffled towards us and we crouched ready to spring. As the figure moved closer I began to recognize him as a man dressed in old clothes. He stopped 10 feet away from us and peered out at us, then his face broke into a grin.

"It's them!" He crowed, "It's the heroes from the prophecy!"

Instantly people flooded out of the buildings and began to crowd around us, babbling question and weeping tears of joy. I looked at Jett with bewilderment, but he just shook his head. He was just as confused as I.

"Um…excuse me, why were all of you hiding?" I asked no one in particular, I was just hoping someone would answer.

"We were hiding from the wraeths!" The man with the odd clothing told me, "We were almost giving up hope that you would come at all." He gave me a toothy smile.

"Um…won't they be mad that you are making all this ruckus?" Jake asked.

"Of course they will be," the man answered brightly, still smiling, "But you will protect us!" I looked at Jett, Jake and Alandra in alarm. We weren't ready for something like that yet.

"I think everyone should get inside now," I told the man, "We need information before we can do anything about the wraeths."

The man nodded amiably, then turned and began ushering people into the buildings. The people disappeared and we followed the odd man into the house where he had appeared.

"So what is the situation like?" I asked.

The man shook his head sadly, "There hasn't been any food or water for weeks. We've started sneaking into their grounds, but not everyone returns. We can hear their screams at night." He shuddered, then looked at us with hope shining in his eyes; "We are so glad that you have come to help us. We have heard of your exploits, you have made the wraeths nervous." The man cackled with glee.

Jett and I looked at each other with unease. This man had lost his marbles.

Jett turned to the man, "What do you know about their lands, the layout of their buildings? We need all the information you can get us."

The man nodded, "Yes, yes of course," he babbled. "I'll get you all the information I can." We stared at him while he hobbled out of the building, then turned to look at each other.

"Well, that was weird," Jake stated after a moment of awkward silence.

I arched an eyebrow at him, "Just weird?"

"Well," he amended, "Weird and disturbing on all accounts."

We all nodded in agreement. "So what are we going to do?" Alandra asked.

I shrugged helplessly. "Get all the information we can for the moment. We don't have enough info to get into a full-fledged attack. It would be suicide," I started pacing, "But we can't leave these people here either, they could get hurt. Hopefully they have enough information so we can destroy this base. It's supposed to be their head building where the leader is. If we destroy it the wraeths might leave or surrender."

"Or they might get angry and try to kill us," Jett suggested.

"They are already trying to kill us," Alandra pointed out, "We might as well destroy this base before they succeed."

There was a moment of grim silence.

"What if we evacuated the city then dealt with the wraeths then?" Jake suggested.

"It might work," I considered the plan carefully, "We wouldn't have to worry about hurting civilians then, and it would give us the whole city to work with."

"Where would they go?" Jett wondered, "There isn't any shelter for miles. The wraeths could easily catch up with the civilians if they manage to kill us. They also—"

Abruptly a scream pierced the air around us. We froze for an instant then rushed outside and gaped at the mayhem around us. Five wraeths were stalking the streets, herding a group of people out of the city. With a stab of anger I saw that one of them was a little girl. Without pausing to think I jumped on top of a bench and pointed a finger at them. I concentrated on the heat of my anger, coaxing it through my arm and out my fingers. As my anger intensified, so did the fire and heat. I felt it build up until I was cupping a fistful of flames, then it shot out of my finger towards the wraeths. The flames eagerly feasted on the wraeths, eating away at the fabric of their cloaks, and the dark flesh. The two that were engulfed in flames released an ear splitting shriek and flailed about looking for some way to put out the flames. The remaining three turned to me, absolutely furious

"Oh dear," I breathed as three angry wraeths stalked towards me. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear."

I was contemplating my next plan of attack when a large boulder came and rolled over one of the wraeths. While they were occupied I unleashed some more fire, and backed away. As I did so I checked in on the others. Alandra extinguished a burning wraeth with some water that shot out of her hands. She then blew on it and froze the water. She then supervised it, leaving it alive for questioning.

Jake was having fun enclosing a wraeth with a wall of stone, but he saw me and quickly finished it. He knew I hated prolonging their agony, even if they did deserve it. I wouldn't stoop to their level.

Jett was gently pumping air at the two wraeths that were on fire, making the fires blaze higher and hotter. I quickly joined him and together we burnt the two to ash.

When we finished there was an eerie silence only broken by our gasps for breath. After a moment we gathered around Alandra's new friend and stared at the frozen statue. I lifted my hand to its face and began heating the ice around its head. It didn't take long for it to regain some of its moving capabilities. When it did it snarled and attempted to bite me. Jett punched it for its troubles.

I studied the wraeth then turned to my team "Alandra and I will question the civilians. You and Jake get answers out of this fellow. It will be faster that way," I instructed Jett.

He nodded and turned to face the wraeth while Alandra and I went to route out some of the people. For the next hour we gathered information, then ordered the people to leave. I wanted them all gone by sunset.

When we returned to the boys a very surprising sight greeted us. The wraeth was in tears, something I've never seen one do before, and Jett looked very pleased with himself. Jake looked amused.

"What did you do to it?" I demanded.

Jett beamed up at me; "This fellow has a very good imagination."

Butterflies fluttered in my stomach at his smile and I struggled to compose myself. "I see," I finally responded. "Well what did you get out of him?"

"Are you sure this is going to work, Thorne?" Jett asked me quietly as we waited for the wraeths to arrive. We were standing in the mouth of an alley. Jake and Alandra were sneaking around, ready to attack them from behind.

"No, but it's the best plan we've have isn't it?" I sighed sadly. "So much could go wrong in our plan, Jett. We could fail, and where would humanity be after that? What will happen then?"

Jett didn't say anything. There was nothing he could say. We stood there for a moment lost in our own thoughts, we both jumped at the sound of approaching wraeths. Lots of approaching wraeths.

Jake and I walked out of the alley and watched the wraeths come. I looked up at Jett with a sad smile. "Ready?"

He looked down at me with his own smile. "Always."

I took a deep breath, gave a silent prayer for success, and then we raced to meet them. We danced among the wraeths, fire and air shooting from our fingers, destroying all that got in our path. We fought with a mindless rage and certainty, never faltering.

My rage bubbled over. In my mind I saw all the havoc and destruction they had caused. I saw the bodies littering the ground, orphans looking at me with terrified eyes, the hate that radiated from all. I fed the fire in my mind out through my hands and danced my dance of fire, and death.

A part of my brain registered whenever a wraeth shot me, or raked me with his claws, but my battle rage drove all the pain away. I was bearing down on the leader when he pointed something at me and I was suddenly flying through the air. My body slammed against a building and I slid to the ground gasping with pain. I looked down at my body and my mind filled with horror at what I saw. A hole gaped at me, charred around the edges. My shirt was curling away from the hole and I could clearly see the damage. It didn't go right through me, but it was still deep. I saw my blackened bones grinning at me and I turned my face away. I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth and struggled to my feet. I would not let them beat me, not unless I dealt the deathblow first.

I stood there panting for a while then screamed and launched my self at the leader, forgetting my wound in blind rage. He dodged my attack easily. I swung around and tried feinting to the left; it didn't work. The wraeth played with me, wearing me out, always in control. Desperate I charged at him, but the leader just laughed cruelly and punched me in the face. I fell to the ground, stunned by the force of the blow. The wraeth stood over me sneering, glorifying in his victory. I lay there panting sure it was the end, but something wouldn't let me give up. I gathered my last reserves of strength, jumped to my feet and launched myself onto the leader. All my hate and anger gathered on my fists and with a shriek of pain and anger I blasted the leader, pouring all my strength in this one last attack.

He shrieked and writhed around in pain. I stumbled away from his flailing limbs and nearly collided with another. It took me a moment to realize that it had taken no damage, yet it was dying. All the other wraeths were dying. They were all connected, I realized with shock. If you kill the leader you kill them all. With a sigh of relief I collapsed to the ground and lay there looking at the sky and admired the stars. For the first time realizing just how beautiful they were.

Just then a head blocked my view and I found myself staring up at Jett. There was a deep and long cut running down the right side of his face to his neck. I frowned at him in concern.

"You should get that cleaned up before it gets infected," I croaked.

"Don't worry about me Thorne, just stay with me," Tears filled his eyes.

I looked at him strangely, "What are you talking about? I'm fine."

He just shook his head and his eyes strayed down to my midsection. Bewildered I looked down and remembered the hole, and pain. The pain coursed through my body as if released from a floodgate. My eyes bulged, my mouth gasped for breath and I screamed, and screamed, and screamed. The pain wracked and possessed me, jerking my limbs to and fro. It was all I could do not to lose consciousness.

After what seemed like eternity, I tried to shut my mouth against the screams. Pain is optional, pain is optional, pain is optional. I reminded myself again and again. I clenched Jett's hand and gritted my teeth.

"Talk to me Thorne," He whispered urgently, "Talk to me."

Gasping for breath I tried to make intelligent conversation. "Well…we did it. We…fulfilled the prophecy."

Jett smiled at me. "Yes we did, because of you."

I snorted, or at least attempted to. It made me sound like a sick pig. "You guys did most of the work, I just ordered you around. Most of my orders weren't even good."

"No you didn't just order us around, you helped us work together, helped us control our gifts. It's because of you that we were ever able to go so far."

"Sure," I grunted.

"It's true," He said, and his face turned sad. "Thorne please don't leave me," He whispered, "I can't go on with out you."

"Sure you can," I breathed. "People need you to help with the aftermath of the war. Cleaning up, farms will need to be planted, houses rebuilt. They need your help with that."

"They need your help too!"

I looked up at him with peaceful eyes. "Take care of them Jett. Don't let anything happen to them," I whispered and I closed my eyes.

"Thorne, Thorne!"

I felt cool hands on my brow and midsection and with a sigh, slipped away into nothingness.

XXXXXX

The colonel slowly lowered the journal and summoned the Head Historian. When he entered the colonel looked at him curiously. "By our accounts what happened to Thorne after the battle?"

"By our accounts she barely managed to survive her wounds. All four of them survived, and helped rebuild the cities," the historian responded.

The colonel nodded silently.

"Does the journal not say what the outcome was?"

The colonel frowned, "It's says they defeated the wraeths, but not if she survived." The colonel stood and walked to the window and looked at the city, which the great heroes Thorne, Jett, Jake and Alandra helped rebuild all those many years ago.

"Why wouldn't the journal tell what happened afterward?" The historian mused absentmindedly.

The colonel shook his head, "I don't know."

"They all should have survived," the historian frowned, "If they didn't, what would our stories, our history be founded on?"

The colonel shook his head, "What indeed, what indeed."