This chapter is dedicated to all of my fans who actually (and surprisingly) waited over a year for me to update. Your messages and comments really do mean a lot to me. I never found them annoying, I found them moving that you loved my writing that much. Thank you - Nix <3

Chapter twenty-two

[Derrek's POV]

I dragged my feet as I walked into the bigger classroom for Elemental Skills. I still could not fathom why Mr Obsidian wanted us to attend these classes with the Elementals. If there was anything else we could find out from them then I could understand his reasoning, but it had been months of knowing them and as odd as it was to think, we were on the same side. Both Abled and Elemental were against Malum and his Deviants... and Cara, I silently added. There was no way that they would switch sides or try to hide anything when Cara was under Malum's control and they desperately wanted her back.

I looked up and was surprised to see that Colin was sitting on a desk that had been pushed to the side and swinging his legs back and forth as though he'd been waiting for a while. "Colin?"I heard Val ask from beside me.

Colin jumped off the desk and waved happily as he walked towards us. "Hey guys, this is exciting isn't it?"

"What is?" I asked perplexed.

"Mr Obsidian asking us to join in with the Elementals today! I mean, it's different seeing them in action from afar during Combat so having this one-on-one training should be interesting, right man?" Colin replied with a grin as he looked over at the Elementals.

"Right... interesting. I've had more than enough experience training with them but I guess I can see what you mean." Colin had his arms crossed over his black t-shirt that read 'Conspiracies = Life' and I chuckled at the slogan. He'd always been a little on the odd side, open to all ideas and believing them all. As I mulled over that thought, an idea hit me and I saved it for after class.

***

"That. Was. Epic!" Colin practically gushed as he punched the air after Elemental Skills was finished. Colin had been more than eager to volunteer for as much as he could during class and he looked as though he was running purely on adrenaline. His eyes were constantly stretched wide and his smile was almost as contagious as his mood. "I hope I get to join in again for the next class!"

His clothes were a little torn in places but because he'd mastered the art of turning into a Rock-being he was in mint condition and totally unharmed – one of the many reasons I'm sure Mr Obsidian chose him to join in the class. Colin wasn't afraid of the Elementals, he was open minded and from what I heard he was top of his classes.

"Colin, mind if I have a word?" I called out slowing down my pace to fall behind the rest of the group. Colin nodded while Val stopped and looked at me oddly and I threw her a smile and nodded down the hallway, "I'll catch you with you later Tadpole, I just wanted to talk to Colin."

She smiled back with a short shrug and walked away with the others while Colin walked back to me. "Everything alright?"

I looked around and made sure no one else was around to overhear. "Listen, what I need to ask you can't be repeated. You got it?" Colin raised a brow in interest and curiosity, but nodded. "There's a secret, old Stinger's lounge that we happened to come across a while back but Mr Obsidian closed it off. I want to get back in there but it's all blocked off by rock..."

Realisation dawned on Colin's face and he lowered his voice while seriousness coloured his face. "So, you want me to open up a secret Stinger's lounge that the dean had purposely closed off, while potentially getting myself in trouble?"

I clenched my jaw in determination. I needed Colin to do this, there wasn't many people I trusted, even temporarily, but there was something I was missing between the connection with Val and why Malum wanted her, and the only evidence of Stingers in the campus was in that lounge. I thought Colin would've agreed instantly or wouldn't have taken it so seriously but now I wasn't sure that asking him was the best idea. "Yes."

Colin's face brightened and the same excitement that was previously etched on was back again. "No problem."

With a smirk we nodded in silent agreement, with one last quick glance that our conversation wasn't overheard we walked down the corridor. I led Colin to where I remembered the Stinger lounge to be and almost passed it until I noticed the portrait of the man with the thick moustache hanging slightly crooked. We stopped and I turned to see Colin practically humming with excitement. Raising a fist I knocked on the solid stone to hear the dull tapping, if I hadn't known there was a hidden room behind the wall no one would have been any wiser of the hidden historic cove just a few inches away from us.

"This is it," I explained to Colin that he needed to move the rocks silently so that no one would hear stones bigger than bricks come tumbling down or leave any evidence that we were breaking into it. He nodded and stepped forward pressing his hands against different stones and pushing slightly, almost as though he was testing the strength of each one. I stepped back and watched, intrigued at how this particular Earth-abled technique worked. I'd watched Helena work her abilities before and her movements had always been fluid and graceful, watching Colin I noticed his movements were a little stiffer. I was putting it down to the fact that moving and manipulating rocks would definitely be heavier than wielding plants.

I kept an eye out for anyone but this hallway was practically dead. This wasn't a wing of the campus that anyone really used and for that I was thankful! It was taking Colin longer than I thought it would and I was getting anxious, "What's the hold up? I thought this would be a breeze for you? It's moving stone!" I whisper shouted at him.

He turned to look at me, his face slightly flushed from the exertion he was using on whatever he was actually doing. "You said it needed to be done silently and with as little evidence as possible. That takes time, just like trying to break into a safe; if you wanted this to be a quick break-in then it would've ended up being loud and debris everywhere."

I didn't have time to reply before he turned back to the wall and continued pressing his hands against each one and slightly rotating his wrists at odd angles. Now that he'd mentioned this as though he was trying to break into a safe, I could see how he was manipulating the rocks and the miniscule amounts of dust that would lightly puff out between the cracks. After an anxious and silent two minutes, Colin stood back and brought his hands up in front of him with palms out facing the wall, though not touching it.

"Open sesame," He murmured and spread his hands apart. The stones began to fold in among themselves leaving a gaping hole where it used to be. The first thing I noticed was the stench of mildew and mould. Instead of the last time I'd stepped into this hidden lounge where the dust would fill the air, the slight dampness of the ground and mould clinging to every surface was a much different view I'd expected. Colin's jaw dropped and his eyes took in the secret Stinger's lounge and the damage of the mould. "What happened?"

"Last time this was open Blake had frozen everything. I still have no idea why, but the entire room was still frozen when the dean blocked it... I guess it just melted and there was no circulation to dry it properly..." I replied.

I stepped over the debris and my foot squelched onto the mouldy ground inside the Stinger lounge. I wasn't particularly sure what I wanted to look for, or why I even thought I needed to come back here, but it just seemed like I was missing something. Val had every reason to feel anxious and curious to why Malum kept coming after her. If I was in Malum's position it would have made much more sense to go after The Control rather than a university, let alone a half cast Abled student. Malum was power hungry, hell he was more than hungry. Malum was practically starved and completely ravenous for the slight lick of power over the Abled society – so ravenous that he broke every ethical rule and lost all morals when he began experimenting to create the Elementals, and now Deviants.

As I stepped further into the room, with Colin following quietly behind me, I tried to look at the scattered books and magazines, any posters or any sort of markings that could be helpful or maybe even just jog a memory that could help me research something later. The last time Val and I were here was when we quickly grabbed the map and her father's books, but there were still plenty lying around in a mess... though thanks to the moisture they were soggy and almost impossible to read. The air was thick with the stench of mildew and I coughed feeling as though I could taste it.

"What exactly are you looking for anyway, Derrek?" Colin whispered. "Everything here is practically useless."

"Not too sure... Just go through the books and see if there's anything worth bringing back," I instructed him. "We need to get out soon and I need you to patch up the wall afterwards."

Colin nodded. He tried to hide it, but this whole secret room and breaking rules scene seemed to excite him. Together we quickly scavenged the room for books or any type of literature, the pile of 'useless' books growing higher and higher while the 'well, this book isn't completely ruined' pile barely had anything in it. Time was ticking by fast and I knew that we'd better leave now before someone caught sight of the hole in the stone wall and found us in the lounge.

"Colin, that's all we're going to get, I don't want to get caught and have this wasted. Let's go!" I grabbed the pile of potentially helpful and not completely ruined books and walked to the hole in the wall. Making sure no one else was around I left the Stinger lounge, for probably the last time, and motioned to Colin the coast was clear.

It was much quicker for him to patch up the wall than it was to break it down. With one final glance at the seemingly innocent wall we dashed away back towards the main part of the campus and parted ways some ten minutes later.

***

Body-abled are of the most curious of the Abled groups. One difference that sets them apart from Fire-abled, Water-abled and Earth-abled groups is their ability to connect their mind to their abilities. Other abilities have a purely physical means of shifting, altering and manipulating their particular element whilst Body-abled work by deeper means. Healers and Stingers have the ability to read minds, though limited, and whilst Healers can physically heal wounds, what does that say for Stingers?

Stingers' abilities have, for many years, been looked down upon. Cast to the side as the 'atrocious' pick of the Abled abilities, those who had the means of calling themselves Stingers barely used their abilities with the exception of mind reading. The question that seemed to float through many mouths for decades, possibly centuries, is if the pain produced and inflicted by Stingers are solely a mental pain, or an actual physical pain.

Healers physically fix broken bones and damaged tissue, but the pain Stingers inflict do not leave a physical mark...-

I tossed the Stinger tutorial book aside and grabbed another. I squinted at the cover and saw it looked as though it was a history textbook. It was the most waterlogged out of all the books I'd decided to bring but the majority of the words were still legible.

-ter-abled king, along with the Fire-abled and Earth-abled kings mourned the death of their fellow Body-abled king. A mass panic had begun to spread in the Southern Kingdom as news of the last royal Body-abled had passed. What to become of the Body-abled society? Such a thing had never happened before in all the legends and stories that were passed down the royal generations. It was never foreseen that the royal blood line would die out, and therefore the death of the Body-abled king, who had died alone and bitter, had not passed down his royal blood before his passing.

The Abled kings and their queens soon decided that with such a peculiar ability, the Stingers and Healers could not roam free without royalty leading and laying down a law to be followed. A decision was soon made, and it was decided that the three kings would each rule over a third of the Body-abled land in the Southern Kingdom.

This, however, did not last long. So much did the Stingers of the Body-abled kingdom reject the notion of bowing down to kings that were not of their ability that a rumour of a massacre of the royals soon reached the ears of the Water-abled king. Furious, the Water-abled king demanded his wife and children to be sent down into hiding as he sent a messenger to forewarn the Fire and Earth kingdoms.

I rubbed at my stinging eyes, they were beginning to hurt from all the squinting. The pages were too faded to read in some parts so I skipped a few more pages until more writing was clear to read.

War between the kingdoms grew to be the norm for many, many years. Grown mad with grief over the murder of his children and the sickness that took the life of the queen, the Fire-abled king lost all will to live. He never attempted to take his life, as the scripts found in the castle stated, but it was said that the king simply deteriorated until he passed away clutching the toy rabbit of his youngest son.

On the coast of the Western Kingdom, depression also swept through the castle over the loss of the only daughter of the Water-abled king. After the King sent his wife and children into hiding and the Stingers infiltrated their hideout the legend of the Lost Princess grew. The captured Stingers denied killing the princess but as her body never was found again a harsh law was declared immediately: Immediate death to any and all Abled who dared defy the Kings, including the criminal's families. There would be no trials. Mutineers were guilty until proven innocent. The death penalty would be held upon the traitors and any relative or person in support of them within the hour.

It was after this decree that the wars that had plagued the kingdoms for so long, ceased. The Water and Earth kings died of old age, and a new reign began all over again with their children. It was a few decades later that the Earth and Water royal lineages died off and chaos once again grew from the ungoverned kingdoms.

I looked up and rubbed at my eyes. Huh, seems like our history classes were much less interesting than the previous generation's classes. Theirs seem to have a lot of gory truth while now it seemed as though it was all hush hush and kept quiet, sort of like discovering the truth behind nursery rhymes. I glanced over at the clock and saw it was getting late.

I still had a couple more books to sift through but as of yet nothing important seemed to jump out at me. My eyes felt as though they were drier than the desert and I used the heels of my hands to rub furiously at them. I'd read just a little more, then give up for the night.

"Anything interesting?" I looked up to see Blake walk through the door and slump onto the sofa.

"Interesting, sure. Useful, nope." I mumbled tiredly.

"Val was looking for you, by the way," He yawned before standing up again and heading over to the bedroom. "She was wondering where you went after class."

Damn, I forgot to meet up with her again. I was too excited at the thought of finding something new that I hurried straight to my apartment and began reading, only pausing to explain to Blake what I had found."Crap, yeah thanks. I'll talk to her tomorrow, it's getting late."

He shrugged and disappeared into the bedroom. I was beginning to realise that when Blake and I were too tired at the end of the day we simply didn't have the energy to fight. It left us to have reasonable short conversations and I found that went a little against the grain. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, messing it up even more than it already was and flipped a few more pages into the book that weren't too waterlogged.

It took many years of trials and errors in terms of reigning kingdoms, but after close to a decade it was decided upon a government that would reinforce the laws of the Abled. Instead of royal blood ruling, the Abled would vote for their desired leader and every three years the leaders would be put to another vote to either remain or be replaced by another leader.

Some may argue that it was not 'peace' that spread along with the new laws and regulations that came with this new government called The Control, but it was the closest thing to 'peace' that had been experienced in generations. While the leaders pushed the notion of 'Peace and Equality Amongst all Abled' there was a definite gap of equality between the Body-abled and the remaining three Abled groups. Due to the fact that the first king ending the royal reign was a Stinger, not a Healer, the three Abled groups had dubbed Stingers and their abilities as bad luck, as though it were as bad as the plague or leprosy. By the year 1965, Stingers and Healers were separated as different groups of Abled and no longer called 'Body-abled', and the discrimination of Stingers was well and truly deemed the norm in the Abled society-.

Ihad reached the end of legible writing in the forgotten History book and with thethoughts of kings, wars and the disaster that must've shaken the Abled world, Ifelt my head fall forward and my eyes slid closed.