| Part 12 Christopher looked up from his notebook, not believing what his mind was telling him. He felt his eyes widen at the person who was standing there, the last person that he expected to see. James Ashton was speaking before Chris had a chance to recover. �Christopher, I think that I have some information that may be of interest.� Chris nodded gravely. �Yeah?� He asked, feeling like his eyebrows would disappear into his hairline. If Ashton was here, that meant that this was important. He had not wanted to blow his cover with the Lights by going to the ship or meeting with them. He had only done it when it was most important, a matter of life or death. Chris opened his mouth to say more, but a presence entered his mind and cut him off. It was a presence that he had not felt for a while, a very welcome one. /What a day for surprises!/ /�Ok, Chris,�/ the voice said, sounding extremely exasperated and annoyed. /�I�m with you.�/ A flash appeared and cleared depositing Piper Cerrano into the room. Her silvery-blue eyes flashed in the light of the room like molten mercury, and before Chris knew it, he was lifted up into the air by and invisible hand around his throat, cutting off the flow of air to his lungs. His feet swung slightly telling him that tips of his toes were barely brushing the ground. /�Whoa, Darth.�/ He said, telepathically, unable to speak aloud because speaking required air. /�Put me down!�/ Piper made no move. He could see that one fist was clenched at her side. Most TP�s with telekinetic abilities needed gestures to focus their powers completely. For those with much experience, like Piper, it was merely a habit, and a way to make it more dramatic. �Not yet.� She said. �Not until I get something through that damned thick skull of yours.� Chris was already seeing spots, and realizing this, she released him only to a point where he was not in danger of passing out. He was slowly strangling, but could get a small amount of air in his lungs. /�What�s that?�/ He still couldn�t speak, and was surprised at how breathless his telepathic voice was becoming. He couldn�t release himself either, he had no TK powers what so ever, and she was standing way out of range of any physical strike that he could throw at her. James was just standing and watching, actually quite enjoying the show if the small smug smile on his face said anything about that. A true Dark, not just a Grey, it was not in his nature to help, it was more enjoyable to watch. Piper showed her teeth in a vicious smile. �I don�t ever want you to teleport in from of my daughter ever again.� She said, voice clipped and dripping with venom. She emphasized every word to be sure that she was understood, but he guessed that she was also drawing out his torture by talking slowly. �You and I both know that she is a nascent, but�� she held up a hand and squeezed a bit, making him gag. �I don�t want her to know that. If you keep popping in and out all the time, sooner of later, she will figure out that there�s something different about me, and about her. I want her to have a /normal childhood/. Got that?!� He managed to croak out a yes and she released him. Devoid of oxygen, his legs collapsed and he fell to an unceremonious heap on the floor, gasping for air and rubbing his throat. Keeping up appearances went out the window when you were almost strangled to death. /She�s back./ He thought ruefully, glad that she was on their side. He slowly got to his feet and collapsed onto his bench, still struggling to drag air into his lungs through his bruised windpipe. Piper looked over at James, finally recognizing his presence for the first time. She nodded to him. �Hey Piper,� he said, unable to cover the smallest of tremors in his voice that said that he was afraid that she would turn on him next. Piper nodded to him, then her eyes narrowed in thought. �Weren�t you planning on infiltrating the Lights when I left?� She asked. Chris felt a surge of anger. �He did and hit pay dirt and was just going to tell me about it before you barged in.� He said, unsure why he suddenly felt so bold when she had nearly strangled him. Jaina had a similar temper, but memory reminded him that while Jaina and Piper had similar tempers, Jaina would still be plotting revenge while Piper would be strangling the offending person to within an inch of their life. She couldn�t kill, but if the person died from their injuries later on, that was something completely different Chris watched her hands as she whirled on him. One finger twitched and he thought that it was just a twitch until he felt a blast of TK power slam into his stomach like a fist, leaving him more winded than before. �Sorry.� He hissed. Ashton was smiling and Chris glared at him. �Carry on.� He ordered hoarsely. James sighed. �I was just about to return the favor.� He said. Chris narrowed his eyes in confusion. Ashton�s mind was radiating pride and excitement, but deeply buried, Chris also sensed regret. �What favor?� �Morgan and Jake just told the Lights where this place is.� He said gesturing around. �I came back to tell you where their's is.� Chris felt a momentary stab of anger at himself that he hadn�t injured Jake more. He was kicking himself that he hadn�t gone after Jake sooner. That anger quickly faded, to be replaced by a rush of excitement like he had never felt before, but with it was also impatience. �So where it is then?� He asked, vaguely noticing that Piper had sat down on the center ring, back rigid, legs crossed. Her mind, which had been blazing brightly when she had first arrived and had been actively using her powers, had now returned to its strange and disconcerting silence. Chris sat up eagerly, regaining his strength and sucking in a few deep breaths on a surge of adrenaline. �Go on.� Piper prompted. Chris noticed that she was leaning forward a bit. �The Light�s ship,� he began, with a deep breath. �Is on an island called Tapahini in the south Pacific.� �Figured that they�d be on opposite sides of the world.� Piper said, turning to Chris. �So, what are you going to do about it?� Not what are we going to do about it, but what are you going to do about it. Chris recognized the omission, and realized that it was because Piper was refusing to allow herself to feel like part of the group, she was helping only temporarily and that was it. He allegiances only went as far as finishing the job so that she could go home. Chris fought down the urge to strangle her. Memory also told him that Piper had been better at pushing his buttons than Jaina was. He instead turned to James and thanked him for the information. �Was there anything more?� He asked. �Actually, I just remembered something. There�s a place in France that the Lights like to go to. It�s kind of like a haven for them. Its in Marseilles, just a small house, but a lot of them go there. Take that out and you might just take some of them with it, or at least really disorient them.� Chris nodded. �I�ll let you know when we�re ready.� �Don�t take too long.� Ashton said. �The Lights will be coming. They will probably be ready for us as well.� Chris nodded agreeing. Suddenly, Ashton cocked his head to one side, listening to a telepathic call that Chris could not hear. �Bree�s calling.� He said. �I�ve got to go if I want to keep my cover a little while longer.� He nodded again, understanding. �Go,� he said, but remember that your time with them is almost over.� Ashton gave him the ghost of a smile, then left the room in a flash of Light. Piper remained silent. Something in her eyes nagged at him. �What�s wrong?� He asked. She shook herself, like he had woken her up. �Nothing.� She said quickly. �I just got this sense that there�s something going on between James and this Bree girl. Something that is making him regret his decision to betray a group of people that he had been close to for two years.� �Didn�t seem to bother Jake.� Chris commented wryly. Piper looked over at him, eyebrows raised. �Never mind.� He said quickly, dismissing the question on her face, and in her thoughts. Instead, he reached out with his mind. /�Ben! You there?�/ The answer sounded slightly groggy. /�Chris?�/ He asked. /�What�s wrong?�/ /�Nothing,�/ he said, unable to keep the excitement from his voice. /�Get here as soon as you can, we have some planning to do.�/ * * * Blaise had had enough. He had thought that finding the Dark�s ship would unify the Lights to find a way to destroy their ship. No such luck, all it seemed to do was tear them apart over which option was bast. Julie suggested that they steal explosives and just �blow that thing to bloody hell.� Most of them agreed that it was not a very feasible option, but no one was coming up with much better. He rose to his feet and called out with his mind for silence. The number of Lights in the chamber had gone down in the last few days as they decided to meet each other else where, but those that were there, especially those that were closest to him, quieted down quickly. �I can�t believe this!� He exclaimed. �We should be coming up with ideas, not bickering amongst ourselves.� Julie turned her head up to him. �I really don�t see you coming up with anything Blaise.� She pointed out. He narrowed his eyes at her, but smiled. �Ditto.� He said sweetly. She punched him on the arm then turned back to her conversation with Brianna. The young Scot seemed more withdrawn than usual. Something was bothering her and he had a feeling that James was behind it. He was conspicuously absent once again, and had been acting strangely ever since Jake and Morgan had delivered their news. He�ll have to remember to talk to James about it. The hand in his squeezed gently and he glanced at Nathalie as he sat down. There was a wrinkle in her brow telling him that something was bothering her. �What?� He asked gently. She looped her arm around his waist; the other was still obediently strapped to her stomach. He guessed that it would not stay on for long for her healing powers were very strong. He could feel that it was driving her crazy, but that wasn�t what was really bothering her. She set her head on his shoulder. �I�m worried about James, too.� She said. He turned his head a bit as he stroked her hair. �You�re getting good at that,� he said with a soft chuckle in her ear, planting a kiss on the top of her head. He felt rather than saw her smile. �I can�t help it if you�re projecting again.� She said innocently. �There�s more, though.� He said. �Not just James is bothering you.� She raised her head and smiled. �Hey,� she sounded only mildly ndignant that he had read her thoughts as easily as she seemed to read his. �Only fair.� She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. �It�s Jake.� She said, voice low. Blaise looked across the room to where Jake was sitting by one of the windows, engrossed in the water outside. He could have been a statue for all the movements he was making. �He�s been like that all day, ignoring us, brooding.� She said, glancing at her brother. �Want me to talk to him?� Blaise asked her. She laughed. �Not unless you want to end up through that window.� She said. �I know that look. It means �leave me alone or face the consequences.� I disturbed him once when we were about twelve and ended up with this.� She turned up the sleeve of her green T-shirt on her left arm. Above the fresh twisted red scar near her elbow from falling into the spike pit was a long jagged scar about three inches long on the inside of her bicep. He had seen it before, of course, but had never known what had happened. �He threw a vase at me. I dodged it, and it shattered on the wall, but a huge piece came back and went right into my arm. Bled like crazy.� �Okay, I get the picture.� Blaise said as she rolled her sleeve back down. �Jake will come out of it sooner or later.� She said. �But in the meantime he�ll be brooding.� The arguing had begun again, mostly between Julie and another Light, Aiko. They were switching back and forth between English and Japanese, both being bilingual, and it was quite confusing to hear; yet amusing at the same time. Nathalie sighed and leaned into Blaise again. /�They�ll never learn.�/ She said to him. Blaise chucked again. �True,� he answered. But his attention was drawn suddenly to Jake. His head was cocked to one side now, listening to the banter in the room. �Look at him,� he said softly in her ear. Nathalie turned her head, just as Jake broke out of his reverie. �I�ll do it.� He said softly, so quiet that Nathalie barely heard him from ten feet away, but something in the voice silenced the entire room. Nathalie�s eyes went wide and she stiffened in shock. �What?� She asked rising to her feet and drawing Blaise across the room with her. �What did you say Jake?� He turned to her and his eyes were clear of the troubled look that had haunted them for the last few days. His jaw was set in determination, daring someone to argue with him. �I�ll do it.� He repeated. �I�ll destroy the Dark�s ship.� * * * Nathalie didn�t know what she wanted to do, faint or laugh in his face. Blaise saw his words as absurd and told him so. �You�re a sap Jake.� He said Jake�s eyes turned to him, cold and hard. �A fact that you seem to enjoy reminding me of. Often. Thanks Blaise.� He said dryly. �But really, I know the ins and outs of that ship. I know a lot more than most Darks, including Christopher and Jaina, even Piper who has been a TP for six years. And I know a hell of a lot more than any of you.� �Then help us Jake.� Nathalie said placing one hand gently on his arm. �But going in there even if you got someone to take you is not just crazy�its suicide. You�re defenseless.� He glared at her. �Thanks for the vote of confidence Nat.� He said angrily. �But seriously, there�s only a few ways to destroy the ship. There are spots where explosives are most effective, and there�s a self-destruct sequence in the keys of the central column. Its complex and no one knows about it except for me.� �An� how do ye ken aboot it then?� Asked Brianna. Jake turned to her. �I did some exploring, and I was the last person that the ship talked to before it lost the ability to speak to us.� He turned to Blaise. �And I assume that that has happened here too.� Blaise nodded. �Yes,� he said. �It�s sentient, but it can�t talk to us anymore. No one knows why.� �Neither do we.� Jake said, and was silent for a moment as he figured out what he was going to say. �But I formed a rapport with the ship. It told me a lot of stuff, though I never figured out why it chose me, but it did. The prophesy perhaps?� He shook his head. �I dunno. But in what it told me, was how to destroy it. If someone takes me there, I can do it.� As much as Blaise hated to admit it, Jake had a point. That was the best plan that they had. He refused to let his brain finish the thought, or at least it was complete behind heavy shields. /Maybe it�ll get rid of Jake with it./ He glanced at Nathalie guiltily out of the corner of his eye, ashamed that he had even thought of it, though after what Jake had done to the Lights who could blame him? Blaise squeezed her hand. �Jake has a point.� He said, fighting against admitting that Jake was right, just that he had a point. Nathalie, Julie, Brianna and Aiko stared at him. He shrugged. �It�s the best plan that we have,� he said. �And it�s a good one.� He sensed that everyone thought that he had taken a leave of his senses. Jake had a look of thanks in his eyes. Blaise nodded back. �When?� Jake shrugged. �Soon.� He said, �I wanna get this all over with so that I can get used to being a sap without this war still hanging over our heads.� Blaise could agree with that. Everyone was ready for this to be over, especially him. With the war going on around him for two years, he had not been able to mourn his sister properly. He pushed thoughts of Jordie from his head for the moment, back into the Pandora�s box that they had escaped from. He said, �one thing, none of us can port there and get out. Who�ll go?� /�I will.�/ A flash signaled the arrival of Morgan DiPietro. �I�m a Grey, I can do it.� She said softly, insistently. �I /need/ to.� Nathalie started to protest, but Blaise squeezed her hand hard, cutting her off. �Nat.� He said. �She�s the only one who can do it and still be safe.� �As safe as can be.� Morgan said with a humorless chuckle. She turned to Jake, ignoring the angry stares that the other Lights were throwing at her. She and Jake were the outsiders and had so far come up with the best plan. A plan, that Blaise suddenly realized, was crazy enough that it might just work. He felt a stupid smile spread across his face and turned to Jake. �What supplies do you need?� �Nothing much.� He answered. �I could do with the kind of courage that comes in a bottle.� �Jake,� Nathalie admonished, knowing as Blaise did that he meant liquor. �Just kidding,� he said and the smile on his face was one of the most genuine that he had ever seen. There was a sudden sense of camaraderie in the room now that they had a plan and Blaise had to admit to himself that it was rather nice, because, while Jake couldn�t truly be forgiven for all that he had done, for the moment at least he was accepted. It was weird. /How have I made such a complete one-eighty in only a few minutes?/ He asked himself. /Though I�ll never admit to anyone that I�m okay with this./ /�Don�t worry,�/ he heard Nathalie say to him as she squeezed his arm gently. /�No one else heard that.�/ Blaise growled at her. /�Stop that.�/ He said only to her. Sometimes it was nice that she knew his thoughts so well, but sometimes he wanted to keep his own thoughts to himself. She chuckled under her breath, which meant that she had heard that too, but still apologized. Jake was still speaking and Blaise brought his attention back to the conversation. �No Blaise, I don�t need anything except for the transportation and an empty main chamber long enough for me to put in a code that�s five minutes long.� �Wow,� Julie said and Blaise heard a low whistle from somewhere else. �That�s heaps long.� Jake nodded. �And it can only be imputed once and any mistakes locks it up. That happens and the ship can never be destroyed in that way.� He said. �That�s why I need to be alone, with no interruptions.� �Done,� Morgan said to him. Jake smiled again. �Good,� he said. �Give me until tomorrow morning. Then I�ll be ready.� Morgan nodded and Blaise agreed. �Get a good night�s sleep Jake.� He said, and turned to Nathalie. �We�ll see you then.� She smiled, and kissed him, then took Jake�s arm and teleported from the room. Blaise sat back, feeling that everything was right for once. * * * Christopher looked around at the other Darks in the room. Jaina was lounging on one of the benches at one of the windows, Piper was sitting stiff backed at the central column, Ben was pacing across the back of the room so Chris could only see the stocky Russian every few moments. James Ashton was absent again, but that was due to, in large part, the fact that the Lights were growing really suspicious of him, and he needed to be with them to quell their worries. For the first time, Chris was in charge of an assembled group of Darks. He had been thinking all night about what each person�s duties were to be in bringing about the total destruction of the Lights, and had finally come to what he thought was the best plan, and had called them all together to share it. �Okay,� he said, calling everyone�s attention to him. �This is how things are going to go: Piper, I want you and Jaina to go to the Light�s Haven in Marseilles and destroy it.� Jaina nodded eagerly, Piper was still withdrawn, her mind still eerily quiet. He couldn�t read her, he never could. Her emotions were always bottled up inside, her face blank. �Piper?� She looked up at him, meeting his eyes directly. �Okay Chris, you got it.� He then turned to Ben. �Benjamin, please stop pacing.� Ben did, and came around the central column. �Yeah boss?� He asked. Chris couldn�t help but smile, Ben had sounded like a mobster when he said that. �I need you to go check all the traps. Go to the ice cavern, the lower chamber, the Desert field, you know the different places. Make sure that they all are set.� �Will do.� Ben said. Jaina looked at Chris with her intense red gaze. �What are you going to do then?� �I am going to stay here, in case someone tries to come and blow us all to high heaven.� He said. He knew as they all did that the Lights knew where the ship was and that it was only a matter of time before they came and tried to blow up the ship. �Okay then.� Jaina said. Chris could sense her eagerness to go, but Piper still had her walls built up around herself, impenetrable. �If we�re all agreed, let�s go.� He said by means of dismissal. Ben left immediately, Jaina and Piper a moment later, leaving Christopher alone in the chamber. * * * Jake slept fitfully all night and by three in the morning he was staring blankly at the television. His brain kept running the code from start to finish without end, an unconscious means of making sure that he didn�t get it wrong. He was just thinking about going back to bed when a soft knock sounded on the door. It opened in slowly and Nathalie poked her head in. He motioned her inside without a word and she came across the room and settled next to him on the couch. �Can�t sleep either?� She asked. Jake looked over at her. �Why can�t you sleep?� He asked. �I�m the one going into the lion�s den.� She shrugged an action that he felt more than saw. �You just answered your own question.� Jake looked over at her and held up his arm. She sat still watching him for a moment before sliding over and cuddling up to him. �Thanks Nat,� he said. �For staying with me, for believing in me when no one else would.� She chuckled. �You�re my brother, what else am I supposed to do?� She asked. �I�ve known you longer than anyone else, even before you became a jerk in high school.� He couldn�t contain the indignant snort at that. �Okay, I deserved that.� He said. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he noticed with a start that she wasn�t wearing the binder. She picked up on his surprise. �It�s healed now.� �Don�t let Mom or Dad see you without that or we�ll have quite a lot of �splaining to do, Lucy.�� He said in his best Desi Arnez impression. She laughed softly and Jake found himself joining in. They hadn�t enjoyed a moment like that in a very long time. It was nice and it brought a sense of closure to his life and he knew that if he died tomorrow, he would be much more at peace than he had been in the past few years. �Hey Nat,� he started, wanting to make amends with her for much more than being bully, but stopped, her breathing had slowed and had fallen into a quiet rhythm. She had fallen asleep, head pillowed on his shoulder. He gently held her and let her sleep. Slowly, a feeling of peace stole over him and he felt his head go back against the back of the couch as sleep came to him at last. * * * Nathalie woke early with the sun on her face. Slowly she opened her eyes and looked around, her mind taking a few minutes to register that she was in Jake�s room and not her own. A moment later it registered that she had fallen asleep in her brother�s arms, sharing a moment of peace that had been so foreign to them for years. She hated to disturb him as he had a great task ahead of him as soon as he woke. She sat gazing into his face, boyish innocence showing through in his sleep. /How long has it been since we had this?/ Finally he came awake on his own, He blinked and raised his head. The arm that wasn�t around her shoulders reached up to rub a neck gone stiff by sleeping in an uncomfortable position. �Good morning.� �Hi,� she answered, gently moving out of his arms and siding. �We�ve got to get ready.� Jake groaned as if memory of what he had to do finally came back. �You has to go and ruin it didn�t you?� He said, getting to his feet as well. �Sorry,� Nathalie said, with a grimace, then tried to smile. �Let�s get trough the morning, then we�ll celebrate.� �Yeah,� Jake said but sounded distracted. Nathalie knew the rest that he was to superstitious to speak aloud. /If we make it back alive./ She thought to herself cynically, feeling the same way. Somehow saying things always seemed to make them come true. �Come on,� she said. �Lets get going.� She turned and left the room before she could be seared by the look of indignation and aggravation that he was sending her way. They dressed quickly and headed for the living room. Nathalie had her binder in hand, but had not yet put it on, and had no intention of doing so. She simply had it in case her parents asked. Their father was sitting in the living room when they came in. He was sitting on the couch, reading glasses set low on his nose, a newspaper in his lap. He looked up and smiled. �Hey guys.� Nathalie returned the smile and headed for the kitchen. He was starting to give her an uneasy feeling like he suspected that something was going on. Her father called out for her to come back. �Yeah Dad?� She asked stepping back into the living room. �How�s your arm?� He asked. �Fine,� she said. Had she been a sap, her arm would have barely started to heal, but she wasn�t a sap, and the bone was completely healed. �Really Dad, we gotta get going.� She said pulling Jake along. �Nat!� He called sharply, tossing his newspaper onto the chair and getting to his feet. She turned back, only to register just in time that he had a glass paperweight the size of her fist in his hand and a second later had tossed it at her. Jake was too far into the kitchen to help and she realized her mistake only too late when she caught it with her left hand. She had the presence of mind to drop the paperweight and clutch her arm in pain. He came up to her and grabbed her arm tight. She feigned pain and shrugged back. �What are you doing Dad?� She exclaimed, shocked. �I should ask you the same question.� He said and in his eyes was a mixture of confusion and oddly, triumph. �A week ago, that bone was broken clean through. I saw the x-rays my self.� He put his hands on his hips. �So what do you have to say about that? And don�t lie to me.� He glanced over Nathalie�s shoulder to Jake, red eyebrows raised high. He put a hand gently on her shoulder. She glanced back to see the look on his face, regret but also urgent. She knew what he wanted her to do and she dropped her chin and closed her eyes sadly. /I�m sorry./ She thought to herself as she brought up her hand to cover Jake�s. Slowly she brought up her head and locked gazes with her father�s as she teleported them both from the house, leaving her binder on the floor. They reappeared in the Main Chamber and Nathalie collapsed onto the inner ring in despair. She put her head in her hands and fought back the urge to cry. �I can�t believe that I just did that.� She said dejectedly, Jake put a comforting hand on her shoulder. �Did what?� Her head came up to see Blaise coming around the column with Morgan. �We �ported from the house in front of our father.� Jake explained. �We�ve never shown out powers to our parents before. He tricked Nathalie into catching something heavy with her left arm, proving that it had fully healed in a week from a near compound fracture.� Blaise hissed in deeply and grimaced, and Morgan looked mildly horrified. Nathalie turned to her brother. �He was waiting for us.� She said and was surprised to hear the nearly hysterical tone in her voice. Jake nodded. �I know Nat,� he said. �He�s been suspicious for a long time. I�ve always managed to head him off though.� �Me too,� she said, though she admitted to herself that she hadn�t been doing it for nearly as long. �But--� Jake interrupted her. �Lets get this over with so that we can go home and explain this all to them.� She felt only a little reassured at that. She found herself wishing that they didn�t make it out of this so that they didn�t have to face their parents, but stopped herself feeling that she continued down that path something bad would happen. Nathalie rose to her feet and found herself wrapped in her brother's fierce hug before she knew it. She held him close for the first time in a long time, savoring the moment, engraving it in her memory. Jake released her and stepped over to Morgan. �Good luck.� She said to him, and to Morgan. �Take good care of him.� �I will.� Nathalie felt Blaise come up behind her and wrap his arms around her shoulders. She leaned gratefully into that embrace, feeling with an almost premonition-like certainty that this was the last time that she would see her brother. �Be brave.� Blaise said to her. Nathalie tried to smile but she felt a lone tear slip down her cheek as Morgan put a hand on Jake�s shoulder and they disappeared from the room. She turned in Blaise�s embrace, needing sudden reassurance that she was not as alone as she felt inside. * * * Jake couldn�t get the sight of her out of his head. Seeing Nathalie standing there crying, worried for him. /But Blaise is with her./ He thought feeling a little better. They reappeared in the red main chamber of the Dark�s ship. The cold hit him like a thousand tiny needles and he shivered. It had never bothered him before. /I never thought that I�d see this place again./ He thought looking around the room. It seemed deserted for now, but knowing Christopher he didn�t expect it to stay that way for long. He was right and two flashed appeared in front of them. One was Christopher Murray, the other� he stopped breathing for a moment. �James Ashton?� He asked. �What the hell?� �Hello, Jake.� He said. He fooled us all,� Morgan cursed. �He�s a Grey, posing as a Light, waiting to betray us!� James smiled. �That was the plan.� He said, crossing his arms and standing casually. Chris on the other hand, looked poised to spring. �What have we here?� Chris asked. �Two traitors: a Grey and a /sap/.� He looked pointedly at Jake. �Good to see you Jake.� Jake did not rise to the bait. Chris was trying to get him angry but Jake knew that he had a job to do and the sooner that Chris and James left, the sooner he could finish it. Morgan seemed to realize this and spoke. �You have a score to settle with me Chris, let�s go.� She said smoothly. Jake remembered Christopher having a quick and violent temper, and rose nicely to the bait. �Lower Chamber, now.� He said sharply. �Jake knew that that place had been rigged with traps and snares. He turned to Morgan with a look of caution in his eyes. She gave him a wan smile and left a half second after Christopher. Obviously no one considered Jake much of a threat for James nodded to Jake, and said, �if you�ll excuse me, I have a ship to destroy,� and left him alone in the room. Jake knew that James was talking about the Light�s ship, but he didn�t care as he stepped up to the central column and spent a moment studying the symbols before kneeling on the hard metal flooring and began to input the code. * * * Morgan faced Christopher in a large open room below the main chamber. She knew that it was a place where captured Lights were held, a place so full of snares and traps that an unsuspecting Light could kill themselves just by trying to find a way to escape. �You should not have come back.� Chris said, menacingly. �I had a job to do.� Morgan said stepping closer to him, avoiding the traps that she knew to be underfoot. Chris made to speak, but the ship began to rumble. Looking up, Morgan saw cracks appear in the ceiling above Chris� head. Moments later with the room shaking itself to pieces, with traps going off all around them, the ceiling gave away and tons of stone and metal cascaded down around them. She deflected most of it with her telekinesis, but Chris was not so lucky. One particularly large chunk hit him square on the head and he fell to the ground unconscious. Relief swept through Morgan. /Good riddance/ she thought, turning away, wanting to save herself. But something made her turn back. �You know Mor,� she said to herself. �You�re too compassionate for your own good.� She hurried to where Chris lay bleeding, battered and unconscious among the rubble that was still raining down. /Grab him, take him outside and then come back for Jake./ She thought to herself as she teleported Christopher outside onto the glacier. Just as she rematerialized on the ice, shivering, she heard a large explosion which opened several deep cracks in the ice and turned just in time to see the space ship disappear into the freezing waters below. She cried out in horror but knew that there was nothing that she could do. Jake was gone * * * Jake pressed the final key in the code and a second later the rumbling that had started somewhere about halfway through got worse. He heard explosions far off as he sat back exhausted. His mind felt like it had been chopped up into small pieces and then crammed back in. Slowly, he managed to get to his feet and dizzily made his way to the passageway. Looking back, he saw the central column light up brilliantly and emit the loudest hum that he had ever heard, then go completely dark and silent. The entire chamber fell into darkness and his last sight of the room was of the mind trawl chairs grinding to a stop. /Its finished,/ he thought with a strange feeing of pride. He had a feeling now more than ever that had come full circle, by destroying the Darks, he was severing his ties with them forever. Jake started down the corridor towards the hatch and was thrown to the cold, frost covered floor as a massive explosion rocked the main chamber. Two of the windows shattered and freezing sold sea water flooded into the room and headed towards him in the passage. He got to his feet, ahead of the flood and was knocked back into it when an explosion ahead of him brought the chamber walls down, effectively blocking his escape. The water was cold! He shivered violently as the nearly frozen water rushed over him, soaking his clothes and freezing his muscles. Retreating back to the main chamber, he heard the shattering of more glass and a wall of water rose up, threatening to crash over him. Panicked, he backed up to the rubble blocking his way. /Oh God, I wish that I had my powers back!/ He thought with all his might. /This is one time that I really need them./ With the wave just seconds away, he fell to his knees, praying that Fate should choose to rescue him. He knew that within moments after that wave hit him that he would freeze then drown. A picture formed in his mind, his sister as he had last seen her, worried about him going off, but confident that he would succeed then return to her. /There you go Nat,/ he thought at her, trying to break the barriers in his mind so that she would hear him. /I did it./ Resigning himself to die, he watched almost fascinated as the wave reached him. It was even colder than he thought that it would be. Almost instantly he felt numb. At the same time, his entire body began tingling but his mind was too numb to register as anything specific before he felt nothing. |