Mikhail

"Zara...something is going wrong...in her head."

The words echoed over and over in his skull, stirring up old memories, one in particular, the feeling of deja vu swelling larger and larger. Images of Zara on a hospital bed, unconscious, flashed in his head. She'd had a concussion. A head injury. Walked across something and tripped a mine. And Trick. Trick had sent her. Trick had...

No, no, no. That wasn't it. This was unrelated. James looked closer than before. Had he moved? Mikhail didn't remember walking towards him. Why was his heart beating so fast? Chest heaving? His fingernails dug into the palms of his hands.

No. Stop. Take control. Don't flip out. This isn't Russia. James isn't Trick.

"It's not the first time."

Of course it wasn't the first time. Mikhail remembered the first time. When she had come back from a mission on a stretcher. Escorted directly to the infirmary. And Trick...

He blinked, eyes refocusing. He could hear himself breathing, hard. He was struggling. Struggling to stay in the now. Trying to stay afloat as the waves kept crashing down and forcing him under.

Zara...what was wrong with her? What had happened? He needed to focus on that. Get the general information. Figure out where they had taken her. Probably the infirmary. But what had happened? When had it happened before?

And why did James have that look on his face? Why was he avoiding his eyes? Why did he look so...guilty?

Guilty...like Trick. The face...it was the same...

What had he done? What had happened to Zara? What had he done?

In the next blink he found himself even closer, bypassing Axel, James' shirt collar squeezed between the creases of his fingers. Again he was breathing hard. Again his heartbeat went a mile a minute, shoulders heaving.

Now! he screamed at himself, This is now! Stay in the now!

He tried to loosen his grip, but found he couldn't. Backtracking was impossible. The only thing he could do was prevent it from growing worse.

Stay in control, he warned himself, Stay calm. Stay in the now.

With gritted teeth, he managed to choke out, "What. Happened. To. Zara."

Axel was low on mental strength from having used his aura so much. That was one thing working against him. He also needed sleep BADLY, having gotten MAYBE two hours in that weren't coma-related in the past day or so. That was problem-causer number two. He was also designed to have full access to his strength without adrenaline so he could fall back on something if his powers failed. This holy trinity was working in communion to let him grab both Mik and James by their respective ears and pull both away from each other, having lost all capacity to give a shit about his own safety or that of others in the vicinity.

"Okay, you know what? Done with the pleasantries." Axel said, his voice sounding like that of a fed-up teacher having to tell little Clarence for the thirtieth time that the class turtle isn't a ninja. "Let me give the Cliffnotes, Mik, and try to not forget any of it, as I am NOT going to repeat myself. Zara had psychic backlash, kind of like how I gave myself an aneurysm. However, now that I know this has happened before, we can rest a BIT easier, since, as crass as this sounds, she's probably capable of doing a repeat performance without failing. Since I happened to read a few medical files other than Chandler's after a certain incident, I know Zara's capable of finding anything. This means we have to assume she saw too much at once and the information made her crash. However, I'm ALSO going on the assumption that this means her power is still on if even at a minimum, and, if self-preservation is anywhere in her mind, training itself on her general area. James was freaking out, and if Zara sensed that around her, could have made her panic even more, which we do NOT want."

Axel paused here to take a breath, and then continued.

"I sent James to get a nurse to help take care of Zara, while I attended to her in the interim. Nothing visible happened to her, and she's now safely in the nurse's area. Now that we've gotten that settled-" Axel let go of their ears, winding up his trademarked longwinded speech, "Any questions? Also, sorry you have to put up with seeing this, Hallie, but I'm all out of concern for today."

Hallie

She'd had to back away to the door. Her mental barriers were alert and well, but against Mikhail's sudden flucuation of panic/anger/confusion and Axel's flippant disregard for anyone at the moment, she was struggling to help. Ease here, taper off there. She couldn't take them all in and half wanted them to figure it out on their own.

"Its whatever," she said, not harshly, but obviously tired and unwilling to deal with all the testosterone going around. "Misha she's in the nurse's office, lets just..."

But between them all, she couldn't get the words out. Staggering a little, she wondered if Mikhail even heard her. The soft hold she had on his emotions left her so she could lean against the wall, bare arms cold and middle rolling with nausea.


James

Just say something. Idiot. If he finds out later, no one will be happy and he'll lose any trust he might have with everyone.

"Mikhail..." he began, seeing Hallie falter behind him. Great, no emotional leash. But he had to tell him. "Zara and I..." No that wasn't how to say it. His teeth felt wrong, tongue heavy. "I..." Okay with Hallie and Axel there, he couldn't. Wouldn't. But when?

Punching Axel seemed all the more inviting with his confession dancing there between Mikhail's finger still grasping at his shirt.

Mikhail

It was hard for him to focus on what Axel was saying, his voice dipping in and out as he struggled between realities. Was he here, in the US, in Psy Prep, or was he back in Russia? Was it Axel or Tatiana, a girl renowned for her strength and simplistic conflict avoidance tactics, grabbing his ear and pulling him away from Trick? Or maybe it was Zara...she had been known to drag him by the ear to things.

But no. Zara was hurt. Something about finding things? Too much? An overload? Backlash...aneurysm...

But why? How? Was this James or Trick in front of him? Maybe even Sasha...trying to calm him down...

No, Sasha would be trying to calm him down. Trying to hold him back. Calm down, Misha! She's all right! he heard his best friend's voice say in his mind. Too clearly. He had said that before. This had happened before.

Hallie's voice pulled him out of it. Brought him back. He blinked several times in a row, staring at the floor, trying to get a grip. Zara...yes, she was fine. Had a power surge, but was fine. In the nurse's office.

But it wasn't long until he was sucked back in. James' voice trembling, stopping and starting.

"Mikhail...Zara and I...I..."

James' words. But he had heard them before. He knew these words! They rang in his memory with familiarity. His ears knew these words. Recognized them. In this order.

The floor wavered and he shut his eyes. The flashes continued, head pounding, memories melding with the now, fighting for dominance.

He saw it then. Trick's face. Scared. Nervous. And above all...guilty.

"Mikhail...Zara and I...I..."

Trick. It was Trick. He had said those words. Had that face. The guilt overwhelming in his eyes. Trick had...sent her out...to find a way out...when she had found a mine...

Backlash.

Aneurysm.

Head injury. The nurse's office.

This had all happened before.

His hands dropped to his side. Why? "Why?" he repeated out loud, eyes flying open, hardened, and he lashed out, grabbing James again and slamming him against the table. A sharp pain erupted from his ear, blood trickling down from when he ripped away from Axel's aura. "You were supposed to protect her! Not leave her open to attack! The mission comes second, don't you know that? Don't you know anything?!"

As if on cue, the gravity immediately strengthened, rooting everyone and everything within a six-foot radius around him to the ground like glue. The table beneath them cracked under the pressure, crashing into the ground and bringing Mikhail to his knees.

"Now she's hurt because of you!" he continued shouting into James' face, voice strained. Although, of course, all he saw was Trick. "You were the leader! You should have gone first, not her! Were you trying to get her killed?!"

Above them, the ceiling cracked.

Hallie

Again, it was all falling on top of her, and not just the bits of ceiling. Mikhail was, power and emotion. She couldn't move her legs, glued in place like some statue. Fingers gripping her middle, she watched James go down as if on a movie screen, the volume muted and world swirling into energy around her.

He was gone again, so easily. Lost under his dark soul.

Leaving her alone right after they...and he promised...

Tears would have come from her eyes, but she couldn't muster even that. As much as she loved him...what was she supposed to do? Still holding herself and unborn child, she closed her eyes, reaching toward him. Everything felt heavy and hopeless, sinking. Bits fell on her head, nothing major, but major was coming. If they couldn't wake him up, the entire building would crush them all. Kill them all.

Hallie hugged herself tighter. It's okay, she wanted to tell him and the baby. Don't be afraid. I'm right here.

But she knew that didn't work. Crying out from struggle, she reached to him again, fighting her own reluctance. What was the point? Mikhail was either going to do it now or later. What was the point of holding on?

Idiot.

Who she was talking to, she wasn't quite sure. Latching onto James would have been easy, his thread of panic billowing back and forth around Mikhail's black monster. Weaving invisible hands, she dodged under and over everything she felt, searching for a tangible something, a landing.

"Come. Back," she demanded under gritted teeth. "You. Can't. Do. This."

And the latch formed and she grabbed hold.



James

Back probably split open from the edge of the table, James had a hard time reacting. Mikhail's words made no sense and finding any semblance of his friend in those eyes didn't exist. This wasn't Mikhail and when James felt the pain finally, he found a way to react. Panic washed aside, he focused on Mikhail's eyes...and then his nose.

His fist landed painfully. James managed to roll slightly to the side, but the gravity was fluctuating under him, above him, he couldn't be sure. "God!" he shouted at the Russian. "Wake up you-" Holding his hand as it pulsed, James lost his voice under the sudden pound in his ears. His back and hand combined were not in condition to deal with this and still put up a fight.

His leg was however, landing a less than swift kick to Mikhail's own leg. Man, gravity manipulation could be so cool, but this? This was bull shit. Mikhail wasn't even mad at him! He was mad at Trick!

"Open your fucking eyes!" James yelled desperately, spittle flying. He saw Hallie, bending under the gravity and trying to do her part. She shouldn't have to. This shouldn't even be happening! Axel wavered as well, strength depleting. What was he doing to them all?

And somehow all of James' guilt vanished. Sure, he had scared Zara, but look at her own brother. The one she actually cared for and what he was doing? Beating up on James and hurting his own girlfriend and kid. This had to stop. Now.

James pushed past it all, anger more fueling than anything else. Hallie would probably yell at him later, but he needed it.



Hallie

"Frickin..."

James was becoming an issue. Melting between the cracks of her already breaking resolve. She had to focus on Mikhail, not absorb more anger, but she already was. Angry. Furious. Scared. And, she realized sadly, alone.

She took in what she could, breathing hard and managing to open her eyes and see James' rebuttal. Violence and blood, of course. After all this, if they survived, she would have a stern word with him. Unhelpful...idiotic...

Mikhail pulled her back in, or his emotions did. She was drawn to them at this point, clinging to any particle she could. Taking it all in and wondering why it wasn't working. How far gone was he? Was there actually no hope this time?

Eventually, she felt the tendrils unfurl in her mind, seeping into her and leeching on the energy she used for her barriers. They crumbled almost immediately...and the flood gates dropped down.

She screamed in pain, Mikhail's pain, verbalizing what he must have felt. When she felt to her knees, the gravity increased the impact and the skin broke under her jeans. But she was lost to Mikhail, tossed around and consumed as even more barreled into her mental space. Even her own anger was gone.

He enveloped her...in the worst possible way.

Zara

The growing stopped at the edge of Europe and the Americas, halting at St. Petersburg, dipping down to Brazil and loping back up to Alaska. It pulsed, like a heartbeat, each and every life blinking and twinkling like a billion stars announcing its location.

She had since lost consciousness to the real world, stuck in this galaxy, coordinates, names, and locations buzzing in her mind like an old-fashioned airline terminal sign. Flicking and flipping constantly.

But then...loudly...stars started to flare up. The closest ones. Blinking rapidly. The others faded out as she zoomed in, pulled in, sucked in.

Mikhail. It was Mikhail. She could see him. Fighting and screaming and...

She flinched when she saw his eyes. So cold. Stone cold. Like brick. Like iron.

What...what had happened to him? Why was he so angry? Why...

And then James barreled into view. James. Why was she seeing him? She tried to block him out, but he was as clear as Mikhail, anger also written on his face, but in a different way. His eyes were still clear. Mikhail...he was gone.

She had seen this style of fighting...these movements...when they would spar, and train, back in Russia, she'd seen this...but never this ferocious. Never this desperate.

And why? For what?

Then she realized. It was all for her.


Mikhail

He was weakening. Both physically and mentally.

Adrenaline helped, but only went so far. Everything hurt, and blood was a constant taste in his mouth. The Trick he remembered was different from this...James fighting towards the forefront, but his mind compensated, memories colliding and combining. One second he was on a mission, the next on the streets of St. Petersburg, the next in the fortified walls of Vlad's bunker.

After a while he couldn't remember why exactly he was fighting. The reasons kept changing. The only thing he knew was that he was angry...so, so angry.

But even that was slipping, draining from him in a sensation that he knew but couldn't remember. As it left, panic, fear, desperation, and sadness threatened to take over, so he clung to it, knowing that if he lost it, he would be defeated.

But it kept tugging, trying to tear away from him as the physical onslaught continued. The gravity fluctuated, strengthening and weakening like a sine wave, controlled by his subconscious.

He fought like an animal, for his life, a way to get back at everything that had happened to him, everything that was being thrown into his face again. Finally, he gained the upperhand again and pinned James down, knees on his arms, and fist pulled back, gravity growing behind it as he prepared for the final blow...


Zara

It was her. It was all her fault.

For years she had always wondered what had happened between Mikhail and Trick, what had actually gone down, if it was really as scary as everyone said.

How she wished to stay ignorant.

She watched in horror, informed in their every move, every position, as the two boys fought. Hallie and Axel were blurred, present but not as clear. But Mikhail and James were high definition. And she hated it.

Stop! She wanted to scream at them, at both of them. She remembered her threat to James, and wanted to kick herself for it. How stupid! Threatening to sic her brother on him, like he was some animal...her pet...

Even loyalty could have its dark side.

This was too much. She had never wished Mikhail's anger on Trick. And now, she realized, she didn't wish it upon James either.

But Mikhail...how could she wish for him to be angry on her behalf? It was cruel. Cruel and mean and he didn't deserve it!

Stop! She yelled at him as he rolled on top of James. Stop it!

She felt herself crying as he pulled his arm back, preparing to punch. Zeroing in, focusing only on him, she screamed out at him.



Mikhail

"MISHA! NO!"

Zara's voice cut through his mind like a knife, clear and sharp. And he blinked. Paused. Hesitated.

He loosened his grip.

Feet kicked him in the stomach, launching him backwards. As he hit the ground he lost his grip entirely, and the anger sucked out of him so fast it left him disoriented. Confusion took its place immediately, and as it grasped at the fleeing emotion, clinging to its tail stubbornly, the gravity behind his fist shifted, centering on his hand instead, before imploding.

Mikhail screamed as his bones crunched and compressed in on themselves, folding into a gruesome fist, squeezing and squashing before fluctuating, forcing his mangled fingers outward, splaying them wide, ripping them from tendons and ligaments, before crushing them inwards again.

And then it grew, spreading up his arm, flattening his bones, breaking and splintering, like an invisible steamroller. And he screamed and screamed.

James

When the fight one on one ended and Mikhail began the battle against himself, James' mind was made up. Through every blow and punch, he had questioned the option, but saw no other choice. With the gravity hold on them released, Axel and Hallie were left to their own weakness or strength, Hallie on the ground whimpering and shaking. She looked like Zara, struggling and bleeding from her nose...

But there wasn't time to help her. Mikhail was the cause.

James eyed Axel briefly, muttering, "Help me carry him."

It was difficult. Mikhail writhed and screamed, waking the entire school. Anyone who hadn't been witness would know now. James couldn't prevent that.

When they made it to the adults' rooms, they dropped Mikhail off, having their own injuries from the trek. The boy on the floor looked like a wounded animal, continually suffering.

"Sedate him," James ordered the closest man to him. Trust them? No, he didn't. But this was a matter of life and death for him. All of them if Mikhail kept this up. "Quickly. His emotions are coming back. Sedate him and put him in a cell away from everyone. I know you have them," he added with a snarl. He was bruised and bloody, but couldn't rest until this was done, until he knew the school was safe from its own student.

b]Zara[/b]

She had watched the entire thing...from Mikhail stopping, to him suddenly dropping, screaming, to James and Axel carrying him down the hallway.

It was his screams, mixing with her own shouts of protest, that finally shut out the rest of the world, and she opened her eyes.

Sitting up brought on the worst of headaches, but she forced herself to keep moving, panic resting in her throat. James...he...he was taking him away...she had to stop him...

She ran out of the office, bare feet slapping the cold tile. She knew where they were...knew exactly where they were...cross-referenced Mikhail's location with James. Although the former's screams tipped her off just as well.

She found them, James in the doorway.

"Sedate him and put him in a cell away from everyone." she heard him say, "I know you have them."

"Are you crazy?" she shouted, sprinting over to him, small fist ready, but when she saw Mikhail on the ground she stopped. "Misha!" she cried, and tried to run to him, only to be held back by one of the adults. "Let me go!" she protested, fighting to free herself.


Mikhail

He could feel it slipping away...the anger, sadness and guilt. It was all flushing out, with only pain reigning king.

Yet still he clung to them....grasping at their strings like they were balloons in a windstorm...desperate to keep them. Almost out of spite. His. They were his.

But the wind was strong, and the more he pulled, the more it tugged.

It was the smallest amount of conscious thought that now kept the gravity field from travelling further up his arm, but it was the most control he could muster. He didn't know how to turn it off, didn't know how to end it. Didn't realize that the very emotions he held onto were fueling his pain.

A brief thought flashed in his mind, crystal clear, bright like a star. Hallie. What...what had happened to their precious moment? The pieces lay shattered, like broken glass in his head. The baby...Anya...what about her?

"No..." he choked out as someone knelt by him, needle in hand, "No, wait! Hallie!"

The field burst out, fracturing a path all the way up to his collarbone, snapping a few ribs and hitting the man with the needle full on the face. Mikhail shrieked again in pain, and the field shrank as quickly as it had lashed out, and the man keeled over to the side, blood pooling.

"Dead!" a voice cried out, panicked, "He's dead!"

...dead? He'd heard the word through the pain, and his mind ran haywire as it tried to comprehend.

He...he'd killed someone?

"Someone shoot the goddamned kid before he kills all of us!"

No...this couldn't be happening...he...no! NO!

Something whizzed into his side, and a numbing sensation washed over him. The pain finally faded, taking a backseat to the commotion mixing in his ears and the ground that swam and tilted before him. Was...was he on a boat?

What was happening? Where was he? Why couldn't he feel his body? Why was everything spinning?

His finger twitched, prompting a knee-jerk reaction from one of the adults, and this time blackness crept over him, filling his nose and mouth, eyes and ears, until everything blotted out.

Hallie...


Zara

Her eyes had widened when she watched the horror that unfolded. Mikhail...he had...he had just killed someone!

The person who had been restraining her released his grip, but she didn't move as they shot him with tranquilizer guns until he stopped moving.

The blood...there was so much blood...blood he had spilled...

"He killed someone." she whispered, fingers crawling up to her face, and she whirled around to face James, shrieking, "MIKHAIL KILLED HIM!" before burying her face into her hands, crying. "What's happening to him??" she sobbed, "What's happening to us??"

Axel felt like he was supposed to be doing something, making his aura go berserk even though he'd spent his reserves for a while and then throwing Mik into a wall, or some total bs like that. In all honesty, however, he just felt empty and tired. And... that extra weight from the gravity felt so nice on him... He slumped over and closed his eyes, passing out on the floor in exhaustion, a dumb grin on his face as he started snoozing away, Mik's blood staining his white gloves a rusty brown...

(Sorry, but there's not much to post for Axel, he was on his last legs even before Mik was there.)

James

Numb by his decisions, watching the consequences and repercussions appear as shining nightmares in front of him, James had no other responses to give. Not even to Zara. She sobbed in front of him, lost and in pain. And he had no words.

"I..." he tried, but that felt too thick. "He..." but speaking of him would only make the reality of the situation even more real. Blood had spattered on their clothes. A man lay dying. No...dead. Lay dead and gone and from Mikhail's hand. His bent and broken hand...

James hugged Zara, for himself and for her, trying to find and give comfort all at once. But he wasn't Hallie. He couldn't know what he accomplished when he willed his mind to Zara's, hoping to calm her down so that they could figure this out. What she said last hung in the air though, and James could see it on the adults' faces.

Something was happening to them.