Part 13

Ken walked along, not making any particular effort to be quiet. It would have required far too much of his attention - beneath his boots, dry leaves rustled and twigs snapped with every step. Instead, he concentrated on scanning the area, looking for anything at all out of place.

He passed Youji, going the other way on his own patrol route, and they exchanged waves and 'all clear' signs. Nagi was still confined to bed, hardly able to do more than sit up to eat and occasionally stumble to the bathroom and back, but the rest of them were taking it in turns to patrol the area in pairs.

Crawford had warned them that his visions weren't fully accurate yet, and couldn't be counted on to predict the exact moment this 'Emmanuel' would arrive. The best he'd been able to tell them was 'soon'. Omi had made the decision to move the whole group of them out here to Villa White, to ensure no innocent neighbours would be caught in the crossfire that might ensue.

Personally, Ken wasn't sure why they were still helping Schwartz at all. Sure, Crawford had told them that their chances of defeating this guy skyrocketed with Weiss' help, but he'd also - reluctantly - admitted that there was a possibility not all of them would live through the experience. Given their way, Ken and Aya would both have voted to cast Crawford and Lukas off and cut their loses. This wasn't Weiss' fight.

Except that, in an odd way, it was. There was a tacit understanding in place that Nagi would be staying with Weiss, no matter what Crawford and Lukas chose to do, so long as Lukas continued to refuse to take on his role as the boy's Master. Ken could see the logic of that - even Aya wasn't arguing anymore with the idea of taking the boy in. He needed SOMEone to look after him, and if it wasn't Lukas, it might as well be Omi and Youji. At least the kid would be with people who knew and cared for him.

But hurt as he was, Nagi would still never forgive them if they didn't make a real effort to help Lukas. For that matter, Ken wasn't sure Omi was capable of turning away from the telepath, though he'd seen the telltale signs that his friend had been crying, the night after their initial confrontation with Crawford and Lukas. It took a lot to make Omi cry - losing Schuldig was evidently harder on him than Ken would have thought.

So here they were, patrolling the perimeters of the Villa, trying to find some way to get an advantage over a telepath that even Lukas had admitted he didn't particularly want to face down in combat.

Their advantage lay in numbers, Crawford had told them. Emmanuel was only capable of focussing his powers on so many people at one time. The question was whether he would be stupid and try to spread his powers over all of them, to stop them - or whether he would be smart and focus on just a few of them, concentrating his efforts. If it was the latter, then some of them would probably die before the rest of them could kill the telepath.

That was, of course, assuming Emmanuel came after them alone. They had no assurances of that, although Crawford had said there was at least a strong probability that he would. If he had help - well, they'd still win, the precognitive had said, but some of them would definitely die.

His searching gaze saw the gleam of light through the foliage that was Villa White. Under other circumstances they might have left the Villa dark, trying to pretend it was unoccupied, but against a powerful telepath there was little point. He'd know exactly how many of them there were, and approximate where they were, by the time he came near the property's borders.

He shoved his glove back and checked his watch, and was surprised to see that it was earlier than he'd thought. He still had time for another round of the grounds before Omi and Aya would take over for him and Youji. He stepped out of the trees long enough to catch Omi's eye where the boy was watching out a window, and gave the 'all clear'. Omi nodded, and returned to watching the treeline.

Stepping back into the trees, Ken continued his patrol. He didn't pass Youji this time - the playboy must have cut around the front of the Villa rather than the back on his pass through. Just to be sure, though, he reached up and triggered his comm.

"Siberian to Balinese, location?"

"Just east of the villa - I was about to call you," Youji's voice came quietly back to him. "No worries, I guess we just missed each other on the crossover."

Ken started to agree, but the word froze in his throat, almost choking him. What the... He struggled to speak, but it was as if his vocal chords had been completely paralysed. No, he realized a moment later - his BODY had been paralysed! Sweating, he struggled to move, but couldn't so much as twitch a muscle.

"Siberian, did you hear me?" Youji asked, concerned. When Ken still didn't answer, he heard the snapping hiss and crackle that meant the channel had been opened to all the comm sets. "Can anybody reach Siberian? He asked me for a location check but never gave a roger..."

Ken's vision was starting to go grey at the edges from lack of air. He was still breathing, but being unable to move, the breaths he was able to take were very shallow, not enough to keep him conscious for long. Dimly he was aware of first Omi, then Aya trying to reach him. He fought with all his might to say something, to warn them, but all that came out was a tiny squeak.

Something ghosted across his mind, the sensation similar to the touch of a butterfly's wings on his skin. *Shit,* he heard Lukas snarl. *That's him! He's got Siberian trapped in his own mind!* There was something close to panic and fear in the German's mental voice, which made Ken start to panic too. Crawford had said that if Emmanuel was given the chance to focus on one or two people, those people would die... and right now he didn't have any targets except Ken.

Apparently he wasn't the only one thinking along those lines. *Everyone, out to Siberian's position, now!* Crawford snapped, using Lukas to relay the order telepathically. *Emmanuel is strictly a line-of-sight psychic, he must be somewhere within sight of Siberian. We need to break his concentration before he crushes Siberian's mind!*

"I'm almost there," Youji snarled into the headset, and Ken was vaguely aware of the sound of someone crashing through the woods nearby. Was it getting darker? Or just harder to breathe? He could feel his own heartbeat, pounding in his temples like a jackhammer trying to break through his skull. He'd never been aware before of just how fragile the skull was, how easily a little pressure from inside could break through it - it felt as if someone had inserted the nozzle from an air pump into his brain, and was inflating it until it threatened to burst.

Then suddenly some of the pressure eased, and he was able to move again. He wasn't capable of doing much other than collapsing to his knees and gasping for air, though, his head still throbbing hard enough to make him gasp with pain on each pulse.

He heard a choking noise, and from somewhere he found the energy to lift his head enough to see. Youji was slumped against a tree, his wire tangled around several branches, as if he'd tried to catch something in it and missed. The playboy didn't look much better than Ken felt, but neither did he seem to be in danger of passing out in the immediate future - they'd succeeded in splitting Emmanuel's attention, if nothing else.

There was a familiar sharp sound and then the whiz of a crossbow bolt flying through the air. The dull 'thunk' as it landed told Ken that it had hit wood, not flesh, but Omi was already setting up another bolt as he ran up and skidded to a halt beside Ken. He fired again, then dropped the crossbow and grabbed for his darts.

Aya flashed by Ken's other side, shouting in fury as he raised his katana to strike. To Ken's amazement he, too, struck a tree rather than his intended target, and under other circumstances he might have laughed at the look of enraged confusion on his lover's face as he tried to tug the katana free of the tree.

Omi fired his darts, but he was already staggering under the pressure of the telepath's mind, and they didn't even come close to their target. Ken wasn't sure where the target WAS, exactly - one moment he was certain he saw a shadowy human form to his left, and the next he was equally sure he'd caught a glimpse of pale cloth in the moonlight on his right.

"He's using his telepathy to confuse you," Crawford shouting, already firing his gun as he charged up behind Weiss. His gun clicked empty, and he ejected the clip and slammed another one home with a cool efficiency that Ken had to admire. "He's not where you think he is... just strike at random, Lukas is going to try to break the effect!"

Ken caught sight of the redheaded telepath leaning against a tree just short of the line of fire, eyes closed and sweat standing out clearly on his face even in the dim night time light. That whisper-soft touch brushed over Ken's mind again, and suddenly it was a little easier to breathe again.

Everyone was moving as if their bodies were immersed in something more resistant to movement than air, or as if it was taking more than the usual amount of concentration to get their bodies to cooperate with their mental commands. They'd lucked out, then... Emmanuel had chosen to try to confuse them all, rather than targeting one or two of them at a time. Ken was heartened. That meant there was a damn good chance they were all going to survive this.

He staggered to his feet, clenching his fist to trigger his claw as he looked around for something to strike at. He was still seeing multiple momentary shadowy flashes that he now knew were nothing more than phantasms, meant to make them wear themselves out while leaving Emmanuel untouched. But where was the real telepath? He'd want to be somewhere safely away from where a chance shot might strike him, but Crawford had said he needed to be able to see his targets...

Of course... Ken felt like an idiot for not realizing before. "He's in the trees!" he shouted, lifting his gaze and scanning wildly. He saw a brief flash of light off of metal in the highest boughs of the tree, but before he could point it out to someone with a distance weapon, the weight of the world abruptly came crashing back in on him.

Oh shit... was all he had time to think before he collapsed, gasping like a stranded fish. There was no AIR, where had all the air gone? They were out of doors, there was no way someone could have taken the air away, but he felt as if there was nothing entering his lungs each time he tried to draw breath. His heart was beating triple time, and all he could see was blackness. He changed his tactic, he decided to take us out one at a time after all... looks like I'm going to be the one to die...

*Oh, no you're not,* an angry nasal voice snapped in the back of his mind. *Not on MY fucking watch! Take this, you child-fucking bastard! Let's see how you like being the one who's mind-raped for a change!**

Rage and hatred poured through Ken's mind, the fires of it burning away the darkness wherever it touched. It hurt like a bitch, and he couldn't help screaming, but at least his lungs were taking in air again. Lukas' thoughts were leaking over into Ken's, and somehow he knew that the German was taking advantage of a hole in Emmanuel's shields created by the link he'd established to try to crush Ken's mind. A less powerful telepath than Lukas wouldn't have been able to do this at all, and Emmanuel had never thought to protect himself against it.

Once he grasped the gist of what Lukas was doing, Ken did his best not to fight the telepath's presence in his mind. The more energy Lukas needed to spend to suppress Ken's psyche, the less he had to fight Emmanuel with. But how the hell did you keep yourself from fighting the invasion of a foreign mind into yours?

*Think of something innocuous,* Lukas told him gruffly. *Something that takes a lot of your concentration, that will distract you from what I'm doing. Then just hang on for the ride - I promise I'll do my best not to do any more damage than I absolutely have to.*

Ken winced at that last statement, but obediently tried to think of something to occupy his mind with. It didn't take him long... there was one subject that could always distract him, no matter what situation he was in. Let's see... highest scoring player in J-League history...

Lukas sensed the boy's mind withdraw and focus on something suitably mind-numbing - sports stats, he was vaguely aware. He stopped paying attention to the occupant of the mind he was borrowing, and concentrated on Emmanuel instead.

The other telepath was frantically trying to pull away from Ken, trying to close the minor gap in his shields, but it was already too late. Lukas had a foot in the door, so to speak, and he was more than strong enough to force the hole wide enough to allow the rest of him in. Emmanuel fought a brief, losing struggle, before abandoning his outermost defences and retreating behind his inner shields.

Lukas seized the chance, throwing himself into the breach and leaving Ken's mind behind entirely. It had served its purpose - now Ken's recovery would be a matter of the boy's strength of will. He might spend his life as a vegetable, or he might be just fine - either way, Lukas didn't have the time or luxury to worry about him right now.

He'd been inside Emmanuel's mind before, far too many times to count. It was a filthy place, even out here in the fringes, riddled with perverted lusts and desires. How many times had Emmanuel forced him to open himself to the older telepath's mind, so that Lukas would be better able to anticipate what Emmanuel wanted from him during sex? At the time, Lukas had despised every moment. Now he was almost grateful - the Instructor's formidable inner shields would probably have stymied a telepath less familiar with Emmanuel's mind.

Lukas knew just where to push, where to tease, to trigger certain reactions in Emmanuel's body. Arousal was as much a mental condition as a physical one, and there were ways of stimulating it from within the mind than any telepath worth his salt could take advantage of. Emmanuel fought him, but the older telepath had conditioned his own mind into accepting these sorts of touches as permissible, and a signal to lower his defences enough for his victim to read further into his desires.

Lukas pounced on the weakness the moment it presented itself, and turned his mind into a driving blade formed of will and hatred, spearing straight for the centre of Emmanuel's mind. Now it was a matter of power versus power, and there was no question which of the two of them was more powerful. Emmanuel had the experience and the finesse, but no telepath in history had even come close to Lukas for sheer, raw power.

Once he reached the centre of Emmanuel's mind, he started to 'expand' himself, pushing outwards and squeezing Emmanuel in the confines of his own brain. He'd won, he gloated, smirking inwardly. He'd beaten the chances of Brad's prediction - it was only a matter of moments now until he crushed Emmanuel's mind beneath the power of his telepathy, and there was nothing the older man could do to stop him or hurt him.

It wasn't what he'd expected, killing someone telepathically - he'd never done it before, or at least, he didn't remember ever doing it before. Presumably he'd have been trained properly in the technique before being released from the Institute into the field. The harder he pushed against Emmanuel's mind, the harder it became to keep the border between their minds clearly defined.

To his distress, he found bits and pieces of Emmanuel's psyche leaking over onto him. He hastily shored up his shields in those areas and pushed harder. Forget about gloating, now he just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. This... was not a pleasant sensation, not at all.

The barrier wavered again, and he started picking up visions, memories of physical sensations like sight, sound, even touch or smell or taste. Snarling he shoved them away, not wanting anything of this man's mind left behind in his. He got a flash of people screaming, running in a fancy ballroom - not something he remembered, so it had to be Emmanuel's. He tried to shove it away with the rest, but it wouldn't go.

He realized his mistake now - by pushing from the inside, he was putting pressure on himself as well as Emmanuel with every shove. He should have pushed from the outside in, squeezing him into a little ball - but would that have been any easier on him? More visions flowed past him as the pressure increased. Visions, memories... his? Or Emmanuel's?

That same party, so many well-dressed Asian people. Dekane was there... he could feel the pressure of a mind against his, or was it his mind against someone else's? Something had gone wrong, he'd tried to pull out, and...

And God, the screaming, the panicking minds, all pushing against his, threatening to overwhelm him. Somewhere, distantly, he was aware of his physical body being wracked with tremors, but he wasn't sure if it was happening now, or in the past. So many people... so many deaths... dragging him down with them, and oh gods, he didn't want to die...

Who was he? He couldn't remember. There was someone he was supposed to kill... now? Then? He couldn't remember. All he could remember was the screaming, and the pain, and the panic, and how bad he'd wanted it all to just shut the fuck up and leave him alone...

|Part 1| |Part 2| |Part 3| |Part 4| |Part 5| |Part 6| |Part 7| |Part 8| |Part 9| |Part 10| |Part 11| |Part 12| |Part 13| |Part 14|

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