I knew going back to the school was a long shot, but it was the only lead I had. As I got closer, I saw the yellow police tape around the building, and police cars out front. Well there goes that plan.. I thought, backing away a bit. Just seeing the building again gave me bad flashbacks of the massacre. I walked around the perimeter, but it was pretty clear I wasn't going to find anyone but police there. I started walking away. I wanted to avoid looking more suspicious than I probably did with my hood up. As I was walking away, someone grabbed my shoulder. Startled, I grabbed the hand, spun around, kicked at the persons leg and moved to twist their arm behind their back before I had even seen their face.

"Jesus Christ!" The guy yelped, obviously surprised.

He looked a couple years older than me, with short brown hair and bright green eyes. I recognized him after a few seconds.

    "Oh shit, sorry!" I said, letting go of his arm and stepping back a bit.

"Is that your natural reaction to someone trying to get your attention?" He asked, stretching his arm and shaking it out a bit.

"You startled me." I said, a bit defensive, "Say something next time!"

He sighed. "That's fair, I guess." He held out his hand, a bit cautiously, "I'm Terran. Terran Rodriguez."

I shook it, "Ashley Altair"

"I saw you, when those shadows attacked." He said as we started walking away from the school again.

"You sure that was me?" I joked.

He gestured to my hair, "Not many girls with blue hair around here."

"That's fair." I nodded, "I saw you too. You were going All earth bender on them." I nodded, "Protecting people..."

"Yeah...It didn't do all that much in the long term..." He said, staring off into nothing, "My friend..."

I looked down, "I'm sorry...I lost a friend of mine too."

"Yeah...Any Idea What those things were?"

"Yeah...But it's a bit crazy."

"Try me"

I nodded, "This old dragon disguised as a human, Jaak, told me that they were called... Kage no Akuma I think."

"And this old dragon...you trust him? Completely?" He asked

"He saved my life, and the life of one of my friends" I said, a bit snappishly,

"Alright, you trust him." He nodded, putting his hand up in mock surrender.

"Basically, they're after the people who are hosting the spirits of the six guardian dragons from another realm or whatever..."

"Huh...that kind of fills in the blanks he left out..." Terran muttered.

"Who's him?" I asked

"Shizen." He replied, "Guardian Dragon with power over earth."

I stopped. "You can talk to him?"

"Kinda." He shrugged, "I don't have to actually speak though...and he sleeps a lot..."

He looked at me. "Can you not talk to the one you're hosting?"

I shook my head as we walked a little way down the path, sitting down on a nearby bench "Nope. I don't even know their name."

"I might be able to help with that, Shizen talks in his sleep, almost as much as he does when he's awake. What powers do you have?"

"I can control air." I said, "I guess that makes me the last airbender."

Terran chuckled, "I guess the hair is a coincidence, but apparently the dragon who could control air was Kaze, the small, blue guardian."

"No fricking way, really?" I asked, "That's one hell of a coincidence."

"Yeah..." He said. There was a pause, then he looked back over at me, "so what are we gonna do?"

"Jaak gave me an idea..we should find the others so we can find and fight whoever's sending the Akuma after us" I said, "Strength in numbers I suppose. The only problem is, I have no clue where to start."

"Virginia" Terran said.

I looked at him. "Did Shizen tell you that?"

He shook his head. "Until now it didn't make sense, but I had a dream or something, with Richmond in the background. I have some cousins who used to live there so I'd seen it before. Solaris and Shiruba, the siblings with powers over light and water respectively are there, somewhere"

"Alright," I nodded, "That's a start. Let's drive over to Richmond."

"Agreed" He said

"I'll drive" we said at the same time. He gave me a look.

"You're like, 15." He said, "Do you even have your permit yet?"

"I'll be 16 in a few months!" I said defensively, "And you don't necessarily need a permit to drive-"

"Yes you do! I don't feel like dying today, so as the legal adult, I'm making an executive decision. I'll drive." He said, a bit exasperatedly, holding up car keys, "Plus, you probably don't have a car. Let's go Blueberry."

"Oh, you are not calling me that."

"Come on!"

I followed him to an older Kia Sedona, painted a nice dull bronze color. The paint was chipping in places, but other than that it looked like it was in good condition.

"I call shotgun!" I called.

"Do you even meet the height requirements?" He asked, smirking a bit. He was teasing, but there was a light-hearted gleam in his eyes

"Hush you." I said, getting into the passengers side. He chuckled and situated himself in the drivers seat.

Between the driver and passenger seat, there was a GPS and a radio, which I liked. That would come in handy when my MP3 player got low on battery. Terran started typing into the GPS, and I asked, "So how long is the drive to Richmond?"

"Give me a sec... there we go!" He said, finishing his typing, "Hm, it says about...seven hours? Give or take a few minutes."

I groaned a bit. I was not a fan of large car rides. The longest Is been in a car was an hour or two to visit my friend Kassi in New York City. She was an incredible singer, and part of the reason I love music so much. I sighed and sat back, preparing for a long drive, and a longer adventure awaiting us.

It started raining as we drove.

"Oh that's fun" I said, going to turn my MP3 player up as thunder boomed a ways away.

"Hold on, tell me about yourself." He said, glancing at me before returning his eyes to the road as rain started falling.

"Wait why?" I asked, pulling out my earbuds and pausing the music.

"Well, I don't want to be traveling with a complete stranger, and I'm sure you don't either."

He sighed. It would make things less awkward. Probably.

"Well, there's not much to tell..." I said.

"Just throw out some random facts" he suggested.

"Uh, ok, um...I'm 15, I died my hair blue 3 years ago, I have a best friend on Broadway and another one in Alabama, and I sleep in class a lot." I shrugged.

He nodded, "good start. Let's see, Name's Terran, age 18, I'm an only child, and I wanted to major in psychology after graduating."

I nodded, "Psychology, Huh?"

"Yeah" he nodded, "I wanted to be an FBI profiler... but that might be difficult now..."

"Oh...uh... sorry.." I looked out the windshield, unsure of what to say.

"Don't be. You're not in charge of the, What did you call them?"

"Kage no Akuma"

"Right, those"

After that, he let me put my earbuds in and we continued to drive for a few hours without really saying anything. I noticed him turn on the radio, but I can't hear it over my music.

After a while, we stopped at a gas station for fuel and snacks. I used the bathroom as Terran filled up outside. I had pocketed a few smaller snacks, and brought a can of Pringles and a bottle of Mountain Dew up to the counter to buy. I was kind of stressed from the whole dragon-guardian situation, and after I checked out, I walked back to the car to put my snacks on the seat.

"Just about done." He called.

"Alright, I'll be back in a second." I replied, walking back to the gas station, and going around the back. I sighed, leaned against the wall. I took out another cigarette and lit up. After a few drags, I started to feel better. I blew out a small cloud of smoke and coughed. After a few minutes, I put it out and walked back to the car, where Terran was waiting for me in the drivers seat.

"I have Pringles if you want any." I said, reluctantly buckling my seatbelt again, coughing a few times.

"Have you been smoking?" He asked, turning towards me.

I shrug, "Maybe. It helps me de-stress. What's it to you?"

He sighed, "You realize that stuff kills you, right?"

"So I've heard..." from about everyone who knew I smoked, "But I don't need a lecture, alright? Let's keep driving, yeah? We've still got a ways to go."

He paused for a moment, then pulled the key out the ignition, and held out a hand. "Cigarettes"

"What are you, my dad?" I narrowed my eyes at him, "they're mine. Why the hell do you care anyways you barely know me."

"I'm not traveling with a smoker," he said, "and I don't want you giving yourself or the people around you lung cancer. So for the time being, no smoking."

"Are you kidding me?" I asked, a bit pissed if I'm being honest. I knew it was bad for me, but it was only thing I knew could help me release stress without punching something.

"Nope. We're not going until you give them up.

I sighed angrily, handing him the partly empty box.

"I hit things when I get stressed, just a heads up."

"Better than You shortening your life every time." He replied, putting it in his pocket, and putting the car into drive.

I sighed and put my earbuds in, going back to staring out my window. It was going to be a long drive.