Darkness.

She could hear voices, but couldn’t make out words.

Confusion.

She tried to remember. She could see the dim faces of friends.

Darkness.

She remembered the whole world going dark. Her world ending.

The garbled words slowly started to form words in Bethany’s ears.

She gradually began to feel her limbs again. They ached as if she had been hit by a hover bike.

Hover Bike, she thought. Images flashed through her mind of being chased through city streets.

The voices she began more frantic.

Racing through city streets on the back of a hover bike. A smell suddenly came back to her memory. The smell of a guy, her hands tingled as they were wrapped around the guy driving the bike. He looked back at her but her vision was fuzzy. It flickered to black and her senses dimmed. His face was handsome and familiar but she couldn’t focus. She fell back into darkness.

A real noise came to her ears. A long beeping tone resonated in her every pore. She could see his face again.

Billy.

Her memories came crashing back in.

Caronia.

Fighting for her life against darkness. Protecting the Temple of the Elements. Time slowing down as the two brilliant beams of lighting met over the temple. Bethany sitting helpless as the Temple crumbled to the ground. The ground shaking so violently that she was thrown around. She reached out her hand to Billy.

The beeping grew louder.

Billy’s terrified face as the world imploded.

Louder. Louder.

Bethany opened her eyes and shot up out of the bed that contained her.

Air.

She needed air. Bethany struggled to fill her lungs with her glorious domain. She called it to her but it wouldn’t come. She was filled with terror at the thought that air didn’t want her. She felt a comforting hand on her shoulder and something covered her mouth. Air poured into her lungs as she collapsed back onto the bed.

Darkness.

She breathed deeply, treasuring each bit of oxygen she could take in.

Her eyes slowly opened.

She was in a hospital room that looked like it was back from the late 1000’s.

A woman in an odd shirt covered in hearts walked in and sat down a plate of food and left.

The food looked normal enough, except…What did that say? Jello? What’s that, she thought.

Bethany peered out the window. Cars bustled past, but they were still on wheels. And a strange starred and stripped flag whipped in the wind on a pole.

Where am I? Bethany thought.

A cup of water sat a foot away from her arm. She willed the air around it to move it to her mouth. It didn’t budge.

She tried again. The cup sat immobile.

She lifted her right arm slightly, wincing at the pain.

She commanded the air to swirl, but the room stayed silent and still.

Her eyes widened. Her powers were gone.

She was no longer the Guardian of Air.