9 --- 6

Xena jabbed left and right at the punching bag, sweating profusely and breathing heavily. To an untrained eye, it would look like she was struggling to get her punches in when in reality, she was restraining herself a lot. She was reducing the level of damage her fists was used to delivering.

Ever since she broke out and triggered her will, there has this fire of rage burning hot within her. And now it looked like anytime she used her powers, she was going to burn up and destroy everything around her.

She had being angry all her life but this was different. The anger she always felt at her life multiplied tenfold. Anger at her mother for dying early, anger at the bullies at her school who thought it was fun to pick at the quiet girl, anger at Bennie for --

Her focus snapped and she punched the bad with more force than she intended. The bag ruptured and went flying with sand fluttering everywhere. She groaned loudly in frustration. That was her fourth punching bag.

"Are you okay?"

She turned around to see Amber in an oversized pyjamas,arms folded and looking worried.

"What are you doing up so late?"

"Couldn't sleep, you?"

"I can't sleep, I have to remain alert. King could attack at any time."

Her green eyes widened. "Did Nate tell you to keep guard?"

"Nate is currently on patrol around the city, I am guessing he couldn't sleep either."

Amber looked around the gym floor littered with the damaged punching bags. "This doesn't look like you are keeping guard." Xena said nothing. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Did she? Would Amber understand? A part of her wanted to snap at the girl to stay out of her business but --

She sighed heavily. "I killed someone this morning when we were facing King's guys."

"Oh that, I saw the video."

Alarm flared in her mind. "Wait, there is a video of me killing on the social media."

Amber shook her her head, her red locks swaying. "Stuff about willers are mostly screened off the internet. People make do with private blogs and secret chatrooms."

"But lots of people must have still seen it."

"Yeah but if it makes you feel better, most people think you are a badass."

"It doesn't."

"Is that what is bothering you? Having to kill someone in public?"

"No, I don't really care what people think." She doubted the words as soon as they came out of her mouth.

Amber looked at her intently. "Are you bothered by it? It is killing after all, you are not supposed to feel good about it."

"What? No. I don't care about the guy. He was trying to kill me and Nate, he deserved what he got."

"Then what has got you destroying punching bags in the middle of the night?"

"I-- I was practicing restraint."

Amber's face scrunched up in confusion.

"I wasn't trying to kill that guy, it was a mistake, I miscalculated my strength."

"Oh." She nodded in realization. "That happened to me once, I destroyed my car stereo."

Xena screwed up her face in an expression that said *really?*

"I know there are not the same but I am just saying it happens. You are probably just getting used to your powers."

"I have had this powers for almost a year now. I am used to it. No, I am just scared this might happen again but it might be with someone I will regret hurting."

Amber nodded in understanding. "Have you told Nate? He might be able to help."

"Punching bag was his idea, he thought it would be best if I learned to pull my punches but it is not working."

"I don't think--"

She was interrupted by something beeping incessantly. "What is that?"

Xena reached into her jacket which she had dropped on a bench and retrieved her phone. "It's Sabine. Nate linked our phones together so she can warn us of any willer repeatedly using their powerd in the city." She squinted her eyes to read the message. "Willer disturbance at Brogue community stadium."

"How does she know that?"

"She is kind of like our own citywide willer radar."

"Wow, that is so cool. Will I learn how to do that too?"

"Doubt it, this kind of stuff tends to be for special people." She was already wearing her jacket.

"Oh, right." Xena could see the disappointment on her face. "You are going now?"

"Yeah, Nate would have gotten the message too. We should meet up there."

"I know the stadium, it is a bit far from here."

"I will take a car, we have a lot of those."

"Or you get Brian to use portal power, he wouldn't stop talking about how much he has been practicing."

"Isn't he asleep?"

"No, his room is right next to mine. He has the TV blaring loud. I will go call him to take us there."

"Us?"

"Yeah, I'm coming with you."

"Right." Xena frowned. "I appreciate the offer but I don't think --"

"You can't be going into hostile territory without backup."

"Nate will be there."

"You are using a portal, you will get there a lot faster than him."

She tilted her and stared at Amber. "What is this really about?"

She went silent for a bit. " I --" her voice wavered. "Just trust me, please."

Xena stared at her a bit longer before caving in. "Fine, change your clothes before getting Brian and make it snappy, we've wasted enough time."

She was off in a dash. Xena released a huge sigh, she didn't realize staying at Nate's side meant making decisions when he wasn't around.

Amber came back after a few minutes, practically dragging Brian, who visibly straightened up when he saw her. Xena couldn't really figure out the boy, sometimes she thought he was afraid of her, or he respected her. In some rare moments, it looked he liked her, it was all too confusing.

Amber told him their destination and after a few seconds, Brian ripped open a portal that showed the stadium through. *Wow. He really must have been practicing.*

She and Amber exchanged a nod and went through.

It took Xena a while to focus on her surroundings. The were in the middle of a large field. A large crack sounded to her left, she tensed and whirled around to face the danger but found something else instead.

It took her a while to understand what she was looking at. There were three people, two boys and a girl, with their backs turned to her. One of the boys was throwing what looked like disks into the air while the others fired streams of light at it, sometimes one of them hit it before the other but they mostly just missed together. They didn't even seem to realize she and Amber's presence.

Looks like they would have to deal with these idiots. She walked towards them with Amber close behind. The boy threw another disk in the air but before the others could take aim, Xena reacted fast and obliterated it in a flash of light.

They all turned around in shock to look at them. "That looked like a really fun game." She could see recognition in their faces.

The boy throwing the disks opened his mouth in awe. "You are Anna."

Xena stopped in her tracks. *They knew her name?* She cleared her throat. "The name is Xena and it is time for you to leave."

The girl recovered first. "Who the fuck do you think you are? We were having fun here and you just waltz in here and tell us to stop."

Disk throwing boy looked at the bitchy girl in shock. "What are you doing Ruby? She literally killed someone this morning."

Xena took in the girl, she was short with red streaks in her black hair and a lots of piercings on her nose and ears. *Definitely a troubled teen*

She wondered what Nate would do in her position. He would try to find the easiest way to end this without a fight.

So she tried a more diplomatic approach. "I am sorry for my blunt attitude. She said with a smile. She could feel Amber looking at her weirdly. "I work for the new Baron, Nate Merlyn, which means keeping the peace and the truce, so there will be no unnecessary use of powers in public."

Ruby's frown deepened. "I will like to see you stop me, bitch." She looked at the two boys at her side. "C'mon guys, let's show them what we have been practicing."

Her shooting partner smiled and cracked his knuckles. The other boy didn't look too convinced but he reached into a bag at his feet and withdrew a handgun.

Xena scanned him with her will. It confirmed what she already guessed. He was human.

She gave Amber a shrug that said *I tried* "Get ready." The red headed girl nodded back in response.

The human raised his gun and fired. Xena put up a shield but she didn't need it, his shot was well wide.

Alarm erupted in her mind as she looked back to see if Amber was okay but she was no longer there. She looked forward just in time to see Amber punching the teeth out of the human being. *Christ, she was fast*

The other boy turned to face Amber, while the other girl charged at Xena. Ruby fired round beams of light at Xena who evaded it easily and responded in kind, Ruby rolled on the the ground to dodge and lashed at her legs.

Xena hissed in pain as the energy sliced at her ankles. Ruby wasn't done, she created a glowing ball as big as Xena's head and floated it towards her.

Xena stared to prepare to blast the ball out of the air but it erupted early and threw her away with violent force. She couldn't stop the scream that tore through her mouth.

She rolled on the field several times before stopping. She shook her head to clear her blurry vision. She struggled to get up but Ruby was already there with a savage kick to the ribs to launch her away again.

As she was going through throes of pain, she heard Amber scream, she forgot her pain and darted around wildly to find her go down against her opponent, the boy was walking towards her and she was scrambling to get back.

Xena forgot her pain and launched herself into the air for a brief second, the boy saw her coming too late before she slammed hard into his midsection and they both went to ground. He recovered fast and tried to rush her but she connected to his head with with a well swung knee, he crumpled to ground with a oomph.

She looked over at Amber, her eyes and hair was wild and there was a cut on her cheek that was bleeding down to her chin

"Are you o ——" She was interrupted by something hot that slammed hard into her back.

She cursed loudly, she had momentarily lost her focus and forgot about Ruby. *stupid mistake* she could hear Bennie's voice in her ears.

She stood up and saw Ruby helping her friend up, They both turned towards her in a fighting stance. She put her fists up to face them, they began to stare each other down, waiting for someone to make the first move. There was sudden flash of movement from behind her.

Where there were two people facing her, suddenly became one because the boy went flying through the air courtesy of Amber.

Ruby was taken by surprise and Xena took advantage. She ran and slammed a running elbow into her face. She went down but got up fast and tried to swing a punch but Xena caught it and slammed a fist into her arm, she could hear the sickening crunch of bone as Ruby screamed loudly.

Xena held her by the throat and threw her with all her strength.

Ruby gave a loud wail as she soared through the air uncontrollably and crashed hard.

Xena flew into the air with a glowing fist to finish the job but froze in the air when the human boy suddenly threw himself in front of Ruby's broken body.

"We surrender." He said, throwing his hands in the air. He was joined by the other boy who had disengaged himself from Amber's relentless speed attacks. "You won, please just let us go."

Xena looked at them from the air, part of her wanted to swoop in and finish the job but that would be impulsive, seeing as they had accepted their defeat.

"Get the fuck out of here!" She ordered, focusing her will into her voice so it boomed all over the stadium.

She and Amber watched as the two boys carried a semi conscious Ruby out if sight. Xena dropped from the air to the field while Amber collapsed unto the ground in exhaustion.

They looked at each other and smiled together for no reason. A crawl on her neck told her someone was arriving, it was Nate.

He suspended himself in the air looking curiously at them . "What did I miss?"

Xena and Amber looked at each other again and erupted into laughter leaving their baron in confusion.