I rise out of my bed in the wee hours of the morning. It’s still dark, with no sign of the approaching dawn. I’d gotten a few hours of restless sleep and, fully aware my tossing and turning was likely unsettling my two roommates, I decide to try and walk off the restlessness of my legs. I wait in the dark until my eyes adjust before pulling on my shirt and carefully stepping over DJ. He shifts and I’m pretty sure he’s awake but he makes no move to follow me out the door. I pad softly down the stairs, relying on my memory to get me down without having to turn on a light, and after fumbling with the lock on the rear door for a moment I finally manage to let myself out. I’m sliding the door closed when a hand grasps it, scaring me half to death.

It takes all my willpower not to turn and run, and after a breathless moment I recognise Spark. She slides the door open and slowly steps out, dressed only in long, thin pants and singlet. We make eye contact and she holds a finger to her lips while closing the door, then guides me towards the rear fence.

In a whisper, she asks “You alright?”

“Yeah.”

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“Restless. What are you doing awake?”

“I’m a light sleeper. I heard you move. Flame sleeps like the dead, so I’m not surprised you got past him. Where were you planning on going?”

“I dunno. I just needed to move.”

“Come, then.” She uses the torch on her phone to illuminate a gate in the back fence. I follow her through and deeper into the woods, which up until that moment I’d had no idea existed. After ten minutes she halts and talks in a normal tone.

“We got this safe house because it backs onto these woods. They’re huge and we can train unimpeded. There’s even a little pond for Ocean.”

“I doubt he’ll hang around,” I say, pacing. My energy levels are high, my body unused to having several days without work. I want to exercise, but I can’t do pushups or situps and it’s frustrating.

“You do?”

“Yeah, he’s a free spirit like me. We’re pretty similar.”

“Oh, you decided to be a pirate in your free time?”

“No,” I laugh. Spark yawns and leans heavily on a nearby tree. “Sorry. You don’t need to be out here with me,” I say.

“It’s no bother. We don’t do much here, at the moment. I’ve got plenty of time to catch up on sleep. Besides, I’d like to hang out with you a bit before you run off again. I assume you will?”

“I’ve got a couple of days before Mac gets to port. I’ll catch up with him then and see what the Freedom’s plans are.”

“You will go back to the ship, though?”

“Well, yeah, it’s my home and my job.”

 Spark shuffles her foot in the ground. “I’d hoped you’d stay for a bit. We need purpose. It’s why Stone’s annoyed, I think, and we all feel it. Except probably Breeze. She still does her school work.”

“I don’t know why you think I could help with that.”

I get a sly grin. Man, she’s pretty when she smiles. “It seems like things happen wherever you go.”

I cough laughter. “Trust me, it’s not a good thing. Besides, everyone has their gloves now. There isn’t any more for me to do.”

“You could stay, learn our gloves.” She reaches her gloved hand out, offering it to me.

“Er, no, I’ll pass. Stephen couldn’t handle your glove and he was more of a man than me.”

She bundles me up against a tree and slams her hands on either side of my head. I freeze, unsure of what to do and fully aware of how close she is to me.

“Stephen was a murderer and a coward. He killed kids, Andy. You’re more of a man than he will ever be.”

When she’s done, I carefully slide under her arm and take a careful step away. “Sorry,” I say.

“No, I’m sorry. And you’re probably right. When you were talking last night you said water is calming. Lighting is the opposite, spontaneous and angry.”

“The fire felt like that too . . . like passion. It’s funny, ‘cause Flame is such a chill guy.”

“We are balance with our elements. Mostly,” she says with a wicked grin. “You wouldn’t want to see me angry.”

“You’re right.”

“You feel better? Can we go back to bed?” Spark yawns again. I fight not to copy.

“You can go. I’ll stay out here. It’s nice, quiet. I won’t sleep anyway.”

Spark grabs my t-shirt with both hands, pulling me close and studying my face. My heart skips a beat. “You don’t sleep well, do you? I thought the bags were bruises but . . .”

“No one would sleep well with my history.”

The smile Spark gives me is something special. There’s sympathy and understanding there, and it is an expression I’m entirely unused to. I pull away slightly but she firms her grip.

“I watched my Dad die. When Stephen . . . anyway, I saw, same as you.” There are tears in her eyes, mirrored by my own. “You don’t ever forget. I’ve had years to deal with what I saw . . . you were younger, but you’ve only had months to process it. Trust me, it’ll get easier. You have to remember the good times.”

“That’s just it,” I say, whisper quiet, “I barely remember my family at all.”

Spark pulls me into her arms and hugs me tightly as I sink to the ground.

We stay like that for a long time.

*

I hear Spark curse softly as we head back to the house. There’s pre-dawn light guiding our footsteps and she’s already at the gate. I look up and see the reason for her cursing. There’s a light on in the kitchen, easily visible from the back yard, and Harry and Hayden are both sitting inside looking out towards us.

I follow her inside.

“This isn’t what it looks like,” Spark says the instant she’s through the door.

Both men are smiling. “And what does it look like?”

I’m decidedly unsure what Spark is talking about, so I address Harry. “Hiya, Harry, did you just get home from work?”

“Nice to see you again, Andy. You have grown. Yes, I just got home. Hayden is about to leave.”

We’re both ignoring Spark’s flushed face. “I was just helping Andy with his insomnia,” Spark sputters. Hayden’s eyebrows skyrocket upwards.

“Oh, and how were you doing that?” Hayden asks, and Harry starts giggling quietly. I look between the two and Spark, confused. She huffs angrily.

“I’m going to have a shower. If I’m up this early I may as well get as much damned hot water as I want.”

Hayden motions for me to take a seat. “You have insomnia?”

“Yeah. It gives plenty of time to think, though. I want to help with the safe house.”

“You want to what?” Harry asks, confused. “This is the first time you’ve been here. We have a good thing going. What do you want to help with?”

“I don’t mean offence, Harry. You’re doing a damn good job looking after them all,” I say with a hand slightly raised. I recognised the hint of indignation on his face. I’m pretty sure mine often looks like that when one of the other crew members says I can’t do my job as well as them.

“What did you mean, Andy?” Hayden asks.

“It sounded like you can’t keep using this place for free.”

“Not without placing everyone in the system. I’d have to, to put them in our equivalent of witness protection, and we don’t want that. They all exist, of course, but what Stephen did has given them a way to hide.”

“June put me in the system, didn’t she?”

“Yes. I was able to supress your identity slightly by using your new name instead of your old. You are alive, though, a lone survivor of that crime.”

I go to stroke my chin with my hand and wince when I put pressure on the sprained wrist. “It was good, being able to get into contact with everyone so easily.” My midnight musings had me realising how easy it was for me to bring Ocean to the others. My next discussion with them would be to get their details, like with DJ, so I could identify them if something went horribly wrong.

“I’d like to access the money my folks left me.”

A yawning Flame enters the room, half-asleep, and freezes when he sees the three of us. “Sorry, am I interrupting?”

“It’s not a private conversation,” I say when Hayden looks at me.

“You were saying, Andy?” Harry asks.

“I want to use the money willed to me to set up a safe house. Something perfect, with enough space for any controller to come and go unseen, and space to train. If you want to maintain this one, that’s cool, but I’d like a place that is completely secret, besides those in this room.”

“And Mac, I assume,” Hayden says and I nod, smiling.

“Are you sure, Andy? That money could set you up,” Harry says.

“I’ve got a job, and I’m pretty sure I earn a lot more than normal for someone my age. I don’t need the money. My folks were friends with controllers, I’m pretty sure they’d be happy to use the money like this.”

“We discovered that their will wasn’t the only one you were a beneficiary for,” Hayden says quietly, and he suddenly has my full attention. “Your neighbours, the controller family . . . they left you a significant amount of money, too. All the properties were sold, assuming you were dead, but the money was held for you. There’s more than enough for your plan.”

“So I can do it?”

“Harry and I can help with finding somewhere, but I don’t know that many details of the wills. That was June’s doing. It’s probably best you see her.”

My expression must reflect how much I dislike that idea.

“She’s a good cop, Andy, and she’s good with the paperwork side of things.”

“I get it,” I sigh. “She’s not all bad. I’ll go see her.”

“Not today, you won’t. She’s back on shift the day after tomorrow, so it looks like you’ll be hanging a little while longer.”

I shrug. “Mac won’t hit port until then, at the least, so it’s fine.”

“It’s done then. If that’s all, I’ve got things I ought to be doing. Nice to see you again, Andy. Make sure you check in. It’d be nice to see Mac, too, when he gets in.”

“Sure, I’ll get him to drop by. Thanks for bringing me here.”

“No dramas.”

With a final wave, Hayden leaves. Spark, her hair damp, passes him on the way out the door with a friendly nod.

“I suppose you used all the hot water?” Flame asks.

“Most of it. You’re up early.”

“Andy is hell to sleep near, and Ocean needed more rest, so I came down here.”

“You sleep like the dead normally,” Spark says, surprised.

“Yep.”

“Sorry,” I say. Flame shakes his head.

“It’s hardly your fault.”

“Tonight it’ll be better,” Spark says with confidence. “You won’t be in a safer spot – five controllers under one roof. We’ll protect you.”

I smile. “I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be the other way round.”

“Well, this is a whole new ball game. We’re all under one roof, living and training together. You’re something else, too.”

“Why? Everyone seems surprised that I can use the gloves but Stephen could, too.”

“True. I wonder if that’s why, at the end, he was so frantic. He wasn’t angry – he knew he couldn’t maintain it for long.”

“And he mixed elements.”

“You want to try that?” Flame asks, offering me his gloved hand again. I shake my head.

“Nah, I’m good.”

“We should see what you’re capable of,” Stone says as he enters the room.

“Did I wake everyone up early?”

“Yep. Actually, it was the shower. Spark, I presume.”

“Well, I may as well start breakfast!” Flame says with the same cheeriness as he’s approached dinner. I look at him, my good eyebrow raised.

“He enjoys cooking, and we enjoy eating,” Spark explains.

“Too much,” Harry mutters under his breath.

*

The day is spent in the forest with the controllers. Fortunately, their focus is on Ocean. He is mostly silent, not engaging in small talk, but watching every lesson with deep interest. They run through everything – meditation, fighting, using the elements around them and, most importantly, balance. Most of the history of the controllers is still lost, thanks to Stephen, but they’d managed to piece together some of it. The use of ley lines to amplify their powers and influence the other side of the world seems the most important. Our current location was a place where many ley lines joined, partly why the controllers and guardian had originally been drawn here. There were several other spots around the world of equal power. When meditating, we could feel the raw power radiating from the earth – even I could.

We convene at the dinner table. I’m studying my hands, one bare for the first prolonged period in six months, the other bandaged, and wondering about my own abilities over void. Pondering over the meaning of null. Flame looms at my shoulder and I catch the glint of the knife. Without any outward changes to my posture, I assess the butter knife and dismiss it as a threat. Flame returns a moment later with his large kitchen knife. I’m still focused on myself, generally ignoring everyone around me, and this time when the knife glints I don’t dismiss it as a threat – but I do dismiss it’s wielder as being a threat.

Ocean makes a sound in his throat. He’s staring at me. “Andy, what you thinking about?”

“Nothing.”

“You didn’t react to the knife. At all.”

We have the attention of everyone at the table now. Only Ocean has seen my phobia. I’m pretty sure Flame is testing me, but only Ocean knows what to expect of my reaction.

He presses. “What were you thinking about?”

“Literally nothing. It’s kinda my thing, isn’t it?” I answer, fully aware of everyone for the first time in a while.

“You were thinking on your power?” Spark asks, leaning forward.

“I guess I was.”

“Then you hella scary,” Ocean says. I stare at him. “Water is calming. Fire is passion. Lightning is wild. Air is wistful. Earth is protection. I learn this today.”

“Yeah, so?”

“You are null, yes?”

“Void.”

“I think this is no emotion. Nothing. Emptiness.” I look at him, realisation dawning on my face. There is a prolonged and awkward silence as everyone thinks.

“Well, that gives us something to consider,” Spark says finally.

“Uh huh,” I mutter.

“I hurt you, Andy? I am sorry,” Ocean says.

“No, you did nothing wrong, Ocean. And hey, it’s not all bad. If I can tap into my power when I’m fighting and get rid of my fear, you may have saved my life.” I smile at the small pirate and he smiles back. His clothes, jeans and a shirt, are still slightly too big on him, but Harry theorised that a bit of food would cure that very quickly.

“On another note,” I say, when it’s clear no one else will break the silence, “I want all your individual details. Your real names, dates of birth, all that sort of jazz.”

“Why would you want that?” Stone asks grumpily. He was angry the first time I met him, too, but I’m surprised at how cold he is towards me.

“He says it for when we die,” Ocean says. Everyone looks at him. His previous silence – followed by his revelation about me – have made them unsure of his answers.

“Ocean is right. I’m not going to stay here. It’s probably not a good idea for all of you to stay together, either. The gloves and controllers seem to come through me, so it’d be nice to have a heads up if anything happens to any of you. It’s not like any accidents will be reported using your controller names.”

“We can’t stay together?” Breeze asks in a small voice.

“You can, but what if someone does learn about you? One person resurrected me – June.”

“We could be weapons,” Ocean says. Sheesh, for the latecomer to the party, he sure sees the world in a different light. He’s not wrong, and he’s not naïve. Perhaps it’s because all the others are orphans that Ocean’s views are more adult than any of them. He learned young that life isn’t fair, and those that are supposed to protect you won’t always.

“What are you going to do with the information?” Stone asks.

“I was thinking that I’d store it in the safe on the Freedom. No one boards the ship without Cap or Mac knowing, and only they have access to the safe – and me, if we do this.”

“You said your captain knows of us?”

“He does. I won’t be writing anything with your details, though. Nothing of who controls what, or anything that hints you are anything other than my friends. I’m going to write it in a simple address book, start filling it with everyone else I know, and some I don’t, and rely on my memory otherwise.”

There’s a brief pause. “It’s a sound plan – but what happens if it’s you that dies?” Spark asks, seeming to regret the question.

“Mac has met you, and he’s my next of kin. If something happens to me, he’ll pass the notebook to one of you, or he’ll hold it, whatever you want. It’ll be on you to make contact.”

“That won’t be easy, though, will it?”

“Hayden can do it easy enough, if it comes to that.”

Everyone nods their agreement, and we get to eating what Flame has prepared for the evening. When it’s done, and with permission of my housemates, I go for a long shower before I turn into bed. I don’t say anything else to them. I use the water to relax me and, recalling Spark’s words earlier in the day, I close my eyes, knowing I’m safe.

*

I wake in the middle of the night to DJ standing over me.

“Flame is asleep in Stone’s room,” he whispers. I nod, slightly alarmed by his looming. He notices and sits on the edge of my bed. “I want to thank you and say good bye.”

“You’re off?” I whisper, my mind still heavy with sleep. It’s early enough that my nightmares were yet to invade my dreams.

“Yes.” He presses a piece of paper into my hand. “All my details and what I remember of my parents.”

“Thanks.”

“Thank you, Andy.”

“Where will you go?”

“I don’t know. It is very exciting. Maybe I sail on a ship like yours.”

I smile, though I’m sure he can barely see it in the dark. “Good luck.” I watch his shadow as it leaves, the paper held tightly in my hand. I’m glad he said goodbye – I’m glad he’s leaving on good terms. I doubt I’ll see him again and I didn’t want any bad blood between myself and the one controller whose power I’m jealous of.

Alone in the room, I fall back into sleep.