Winter Rain

Note: I wrote this apart from the competition, so it doesn't fit the prompt perfectly. It's a girl instead of a boy, and it's not on the street...Yeah, it's close enough. Enjoy! :D

"Rain! Winter! The Stealers have found us!" Jade flung open the door and featured frantically at them. "Come on!"

Rain inhaled sharply. The Stealers. The worst nightmare of every Astral on earth. By taking the gem embedded in an Astral's wrist, they stole the life from their body. An Astral couldn't live without their gem.

Hunter ran up behind Jade.

"I thought none of us had manifested yet! Why are the Stealers after us?"

Rain grabbed Winter's hand and pulled her to her feet.

"Winter has," he said. "She manifested telekinesis 2 days ago."

Winter looked at them apologetically and held out her wrist. Her gem had changed from the clear quartz of an unmanifested Astral to the melody stone of a telekinetic.

"They must have detected my manifestation somehow," she said softly.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Jade asked accusingly.

"No time!" Rain cried. "We need to leave!"

The four sprinted from the room, hearing the heavy footsteps of the Stealers close behind them.

A quick whizzing sound filled the air and a garnet sped past them and struck the floor, exploding into a wall of fire. Rain felt sick. The garnet had been some Astral's gem before the Stealers had taken it for its power.

The four Astrals stopped, unable to pass the wall of fire. They turned around to a group of Stealers. The Stealers were armed with slings and pouches of Astral gems. The slings explained the whizzing noise that preceded the flying gem.

"We only want the telekinetic," one of them said gruffly. "Give her to us and we'll let the rest of you go. Until you manifest that is." He grinned a toothy smile.

"In your dreams," scowled Rain.

The Stealer shrugged. "Have it your way." He grabbed a topaz from his pouch and smashed it on the ground in front of him, turning the group of Stealers invisible.

The four fearfully scanned the air around them, knowing that the Stealers were there, lurking. Invisibility somehow made the bad guys seem bigger and badder.

Winter screamed and clutched at her neck. A Stealer had grabbed her! Rain whirled around and punched the air beside her face, hoping her assaulter would be there. He felt a satisfying crunch and blood streamed down an invisible face. Winter staggered away, gasping for air.

Jade and Hunter were back to back, warily studying the air around them. Out of thin air, a malachite gem flew at them, hitting Hunter in the face and spontaneously encasing the two in stone.

A citrine smacked Rain in the side and sucked all the air from his lungs. As he collapsed, gasping, a Stealer shoved Winter up against a wall. The Stealer became visible and grabbed a knife from his side.

Rain watched in horror as the Stealer pried the melody stone from Winter's wrist. She fell to the floor, meeting Rain's eyes.

Rain lunged towards her, but Jade and Hunter grabbed him, their stone tomb having crumbled to dust.

"Rain, no!" Jade croaked with tears in her voice. "You can't. If you touch her, you'll die too. A dying Astral has a dangerous aura around them." Tears were flowing freely now. "I'm sorry."

"Rain," Winter whispered. "I love you."

"Winter!" Rain cried.

She gasped quietly and closed her eyes. The Stealer who had stolen her gem snickered. Rain turned to him with an anger that can't be described.

He screamed a string of colorful insults and the Stealer stepped back.

"Watch your language," he scolded.

"HOW DARE YOU," Rain roared. "YOU MURDERER! YOU TRY WATCHING SOMEONE YOU LOVE DIE AND THEN I'LL TELL YOU TO WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!!"

Rain broke free of Jade and Hunter and yelled, pouring all his pain into a scream of agony. His wrist burned.

Ice exploded out from him. In the span of half a second, all the Stealers were entombed in freezing prisons.

Rain stopped and ran to Winter's side, ignoring everything else.

"Winter," he said in a tear-stained voice. "I love you, too."

Jade and Hunter clutched each other, staring at the gem of blue tourmaline in Rain's wrist.

"He manifested," Jade observed sadly.

Hunter nodded. "We can fix this. We just need an Astral time traveler," his voice broke.

Rain looked up from Winter's body.

"There are some things you can't fix, Hunter," he said softly.

~~~

Hunter was pacing.

"Jade, there must be something. Like I said, we could find an Astral time traveler."

Jade was in their bed. She looked up.

"I checked, Hunter," she said. "I hacked the system that the Stealers use. They have a sensor that detects manifestations and their site records all manifested Astrals. There are no time travelers that haven't been killed by the Stealers."

Hunter sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Something else then. Rain told me a few days ago that he was going to propose to Winter. Somehow, we need to make that happen."

Jade threw down her phone that she had been looking for time travelers on.

"Hunter, we all miss her. But you aren't thinking clearly. There is nothing we can do. She's dead! We can't change that!" she burst into tears.

Hunter hugged his wife and stroked her hair.

"I should go talk to him," he said.

Jade jerked away.

"You idiot! That's the last thing he wants! He just lost the girl he loves, he doesn't need you to talk to him. All you'd do is give him weak condolences and assurances that we would fix it! Listen, Hunter. We can't!" Jade took a deep breath. "Imagine you watched me be killed in front of your eyes and you weren't even able to be with me when I died. Would you want Rain coming and giving you sympathy and false hopes when he has Winter with him?"

Hunter shook his head weakly.

"See? You wouldn't," Jade continued. "because he wouldn't understand. He's going through horrible pain right now, losing Winter. I know you miss her too, but not on the level he does. He doesn't need you to come and talk to him." She leaned against Hunter. She looked up at him and her face softened. "I know you mean well, but that is not going to make him feel better."

Hunter nodded.

"I would end up in a lot of awkward positions without you," he said.

Jade smiled.

"That's what I'm for."

Hunter smirked.

"I thought you were for loving me unconditionally."

Jade dipped her head in acknowledgment.

"That too."

Then Hunter had a thought. He stood up.

"Jade, we need to find Professor Minervus."

Jade's face brightened in understanding.

"That actually might work."

~~~

"Well, can you do it?"

Professor Minervus stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"I think it might be possible, but don't get your hopes up too high," he turned to Jade. "I would, of course, need a donor."

Jade nodded.

"Of course."

Minervus walked over to his desk and retrieved a small diamond-tipped drill bit. He fitted it into a drill and walked back over to Hunter and Jade.

"Your wrist m' lady?"

Jade tentatively held out her wrist. She trusted Minervus, but it was unnerving to expose her wrist to someone with a power tool. Especially so soon after the murder of her friend.

"Please be careful," she pleaded.

Minervus nodded.

"But of course."

He drilled a minute hole in her wrist gem and collected the shavings. He took the sample and carried it to a massive machine. He slotted it in the side and began tinkering with the controls of the machine.

"Did you bring the body?" he asked as he worked.

Hunter nodded.

"Yes."

"Good."

Jade shuddered. It had been beyond creepy to transport her friend's body in the back of their car.

After a few minutes of awkward silence punctuated only by the whirrings of the machine, Minervus turned to them.

"Bring her in."

Hunter jogged out of the room and returned quickly holding Winter's body in his arms. He set her on an operating table.

Minervus flipped a switch on the machine and it hummed vigorously.

"This is cutting edge technology," he said almost to himself, watching the machine closely. "Cloning can now be done in a few minutes when before it took months."

The machine dinged cheerfully and Minervus opened a slot on the side and pulled out an unmanifested Astral gem, identical to the one in Jade's wrist.

He walked over to Winter's body with the gem.

By human standards, Winter would be perfectly healthy, but because of her stolen gem, life was nonexistent. Minervus held in his hand the object that had the possibility of resurrecting her.

"I'm going to graft the gem in," he said. "And then we will see if there is going to be a welcome home party or not."

He inserted the gem into the gap in Winter's wrist and bent over it so Jade and Hunter couldn't see.

When he stood up again, the gem looked as if it had always been there.

"Give it a minute," Minervus said. "Then we'll be able to tell if it worked or not."

They all held their breath.

~~~

Rain was on the roof of the apartment complex. He stared out at the city. Nothing was the same without Winter. It had been 3 days since she died.

He heard the door to the roof open behind him. He knew for a fact that no one came on the roof except for him and Winter. But it couldn't be Winter. It must be Hunter or Jade coming up to comfort him. He was not in the mood for that.

"Go away," he muttered. "I don't want your pity. It won't make her come back."

"Oh, alright. I would have thought you would want to see me, but if you don't I guess I'll leave now."

Rain whirled around.

"Winter?"

This wasn't possible. He was dreaming.

But there she was, alive and as beautiful as ever.

She laughed and ran into his arms.

"You can't get rid of me that easily."

"You're alive!"

Winter nodded.

"Jade and Hunter got Professor Minervus to clone Jade's gem and then implant it in me," she held out her wrist. "I'm not telekinetic anymore, but that's ok." She leaned closer to Rain. "It's worth it."

Rain couldn't restrain himself. He kissed Winter.

"You're really back," he whispered when he pulled away.

She smiled.

"And I heard you manifested."

Rain nodded.

"Ice."

Winter pulled from their embrace and looked out at the skyline.

"Funny. I always thought you'd be water, 'cause of your name."

Rain put his arm around her shoulder.

"You should have known better," he said good-naturedly "You manifested as a telekinetic." He stroked her hair. "I actually think it was you if names have anything to do with it."

It started to rain.

Winter looked at her gem. It had turned to a pearl.

"Huh. I guess I'm water now," she shrugged. "I never liked telekinesis anyway," she smiled up at Rain. They were both soaking wet now. "We go together."

Rain smiled.

"Yes, we do." he kissed her on the head. "Will you marry me, Winter?"

She pretended to think about it.

"Yes, I think that'd be a good idea."

They kissed and their powers merged, turning the rain into snow.

"Try not to lose your gem again, ok?" Rain murmured.

"I'll try not to die again," Winter assured him. "Once was enough."

Rain shook his head.

"No, it was too much."

"You're right."

"I'm glad you're back."