James Black's Story

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.