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Down in some dank dungeon, under the streets of Threed, Ness was doing yo-yo tricks.
Paula didn't blame him. If she'd had some hand-held hobby, and if she hadn't needed to keep her mind open for any sign of trouble or salvation, she'd be doing something to distract herself too; captivity, she was swiftly learning, was very dull. Instead, she watched Ness, who seemed to have a supernatural ability to keep his yo-yo spinning at the end of its string. Was it really all in the wrist?
"Ness," she said, "do you ever cheat on this stuff? You know, with Psi?"
"Huh?" Ness jerked the yo-yo back up into his hand. "No? I don't even know how you'd do it. Keep it spinning and rolling for walk-the-dog, I guess? I think it'd be harder than just doing it normally. Maybe not for you?"
"Maybe," said Paula, suddenly too nervous to meet Ness's eyes even as he sat down next to her. "Or maybe I'd just break the string. I've been practicing for a long time, but it's hard to keep things steady." By way of demonstration, she glanced at a rock on the floor of the cave, concentrating hard on keeping it slow and level. It began to rise, slow and even at first, and hover towards her; she closed her eyes to focus harder, but even as she did, she could feel the power building up behind her eyes, demanding an outlet. The rock shot into the air, colliding with the low ceiling in a cloud of dust before falling with a thunk onto the ground. "It's always like that," said Paula, voice low.
When she worked up the nerve to look at Ness again, she was expecting some hint of fear or worry in his face, but instead he was beaming. "That's so cool! I've never tried anything like that. Until the meteor fell, I never thought about this stuff at all, even though maybe I... I don't know. But you knew, and you practiced, and I've seen the stuff you do in a fight, and the telepathy-- seriously, Paula, I think you're the coolest person I've ever met."
"Thank you." Paula had the sudden urge to reach for Ness's hand, but that was too forward, wasn't it? Besides, they were stuck in this darkness, in this town that felt wrong in ways she couldn't quite articulate... and she could hear something in the back of her mind, a gentle searching sound, like echolocation. Jeff. "You're so sweet. Once we're out of here and somewhere we can rest, I'll show you how I practice... but I think our friend's about to be here." Paula stood up and dusted herself off. "Are you ready?"
"I think so?" Ness stood as well, tucking his yo-yo away in his pocket. "But -- please show me? And I'll show you some yo-yo tricks. I bet you'll be great, even if you cheat."
"I won't! I promise." Paula looked up; the chime was getting louder, and she could swear she heard the faint thrumming of an engine. It was about time. She wasn't sure she could bear to think about Ness anymore: how sweet he was, and how easily sweet things could break. "But first -- first, we get out of here."
Dr. Andonuts's lab had hardly anywhere to sleep, and Jeff wasn't even trying. Even as she tried to make herself comfortable in her sleeping bag on the upstairs storeroom floor, Paula could feel his mind in the lab downstairs: a jangling mess of nerves, even worse than he'd been when he'd clambered out of the broken Sky Runner and introduced himself. There was no hope for rest when he was like this, even with the comforting sensation of Ness's mind lost in dreams in the next room. Paula hauled herself up, straightened her dress, and smoothed her hair before she stepped out into the hallway.
Jeff wasn't in the lab. He was in the middle of the hallway, contents of his toolbox strewn out on the floor as he tinkered with something tube-shaped. When he heard her footsteps, he jumped to his feet. "H-hi, Paula. I'm sorry, am I keeping you up? I've been trying to be quiet."
It was a good excuse, but Paula wasn't sure excuses were a good idea at the moment. "You're not making a lot of noise, but... you're upset. I can feel it. What's wrong? Did something happen with your dad?"
"My -- Dr. Andonuts? No, he's just working, and I don't want to talk to -- I mean, I don't want to bother him while he repairs the Sky Runner." Jeff's face faltered. "And I don't know what to say, anyway. I know this is kind of a weird question, but is it easier, when you're psychic? To know what to talk about and when to talk about it? When you can feel what people feel?"
"I don't think that's a weird question," Paula replied, "but it's tricky. Let's sit down? You look like you're about to fall over." Paula felt about to fall over too, and she sat down alongside Jeff, leaning against the wall to try and stifle her body's protests against still being awake. "Sometimes it helps," she continued, "if I know someone well enough to feel them clearly, and they're very upset and I can't see it happening -- like right now. Other than that, I don't know if it helps. If I were you right now, even if I knew just how Dr. Andonuts felt, I can't imagine what I'd say to him. I... Jeff, can I asked what happened? How things got this way between you two?"
"I don't even know." Something in Jeff's psychic presence went cold and steely, and there was a sort of tired sadness in his eyes. "He just dropped me off at school and left. I don't even know, and I hate it, and... do you want to know the truth? He's not even the one I'm really worried about talking to. It's a long story, but I think I ruined my roommate's birthday on my way to rescue you, and I don't have any idea how to apologize to him. He helped me break out of school, and I screwed everything up for him, and what do I even say? I thought maybe I'd go back and apologize, but I think I'd just make it worse, especially if I leave again. He's my best friend and I bet he hates me now."
"So don't do it right now," said Paula. "I don't know him, but if he's your best friend and he was willing to help you in the first place, I think he'll understand once you can tell him the whole story. And if you need a hand, I can come along and tell him I'm the friend that got you into this whole silly thing in the first place, and he can hate me instead."
"Oh, he wouldn't. You're so nice, and Tony's great, and I bet you'd get along. I think... I think you're right, and I should just give it time." Jeff looked down at the nearly forgotten tube-thing in his hands. "I should probably get some sleep, too. This is pretty close to done, and it's Rainy Circle in the morning."
Paula nodded, although she was barely able to pull her head back up. "We should all get some sleep. We can't let Ness do all the work, right?"
"I'll do my best to keep up." There was still something strained in Jeff's smile, but Paula could feel his mind calming down. "Night, Paula."
"Goodnight."
Paula stood up, staggered her way back to the storeroom, and barely managed to climb into the sleeping bag before her eyes forced themselves closed. Jeff's mind was calm and quiet now; knowing him, he'd probably passed out right in the hallway. Ness was still dreaming, like a white-noise machine in the back of her brain, soothing her on the way to sleep.
Paula couldn't have imagined a worse way to meet Tony.
The tube room at the heart of the Stonehenge Base had been bad enough: a room soaked in psychic pain, prisoners begging for help, and Jeff in enough anguish to make even Ness's steps falter with the resonance of it. They'd been too rattled to take down the Starman commander quickly, and Jeff had taken the brunt of a Starstorm; a quick Lifeup left him just barely able to walk away, Ness and Poo bracing him on either side as they took him somewhere quiet to treat him more properly. Paula was left alone in the tube room, surrounded by bedraggled captives, and Tony was apoplectic. "Jeff -- I saw him -- he's --"
"He's going to be fine," said Paula, as calmly as she could manage; anger this strong tended to be contagious, and she was still on edge. "Ness and Poo are both healers. They'll take good care of him. Are you okay, Tony? Can I help you with anything?" What could she possibly do? She had food, she supposed, but nothing like a change of clothes or a towel to help clean off the goo.
"I need to see Jeff." Tony gritted his teeth hard, and Paula could sense him trying to control himself. Jeff was right, of course -- this was a nice boy, more driven by fear than anger at the heart of him. Nicer than her, probably. "I keep having dreams about him getting hurt and it ruining everything. I know this is where he needs to be right now, that it's his destiny, but my destiny is -- no, never mind. I just need to talk to him and make sure he's really okay, all right? That the dreams aren't real."
And there it was, surfacing from the back of Tony's mind when he talked about the dreams: a staticky brain-buzz that made Paula's mouth taste like pennies. The influence of Giygas. It wasn't as strong as when they fought the possessed, people driven mad by Giygas's overwhelming anger, but it was there nonetheless to torment his dreams. Paula supposed that meant Tony was a little psi-sensitive -- Giygas seemed to touch those people, not true psi-nulls like Jeff and his father, and not anyone strong enough for their mind to fight back -- but that was something to think about later. For now, all she could do was try to keep him on an even keel.
"Why don't we go see how the boys are doing? I bet Jeff's well enough to talk by now." Paula sent her consciousness outward to double-check that, and yes, she could feel it: her three friends' minds, calm and steady, Jeff's still a touch groggy but certainly awake. "You two can talk, and then we're going to take everyone back to the lab to clean up. Is that okay?"
Tony just nodded, and he let Paula lead him back to the side room where the healers were at work. Jeff was slumped on a metal bench, ragged but fully conscious, and managed to sit up straight as he saw them coming. "Paula? Tony! You're all right!"
"Jeff! Are you okay? Oh, no, your glasses!" Tony rushed forward to meet him, offering a hand as Jeff staggered to his feet. "Your left lens. Is your eye --"
"My eye's fine," said Jeff, with a smile that might have been more reassuring without the shattered glasses above it. "We can fix the glasses at the lab. It's so good to see you! I've been meaning to talk to you but I've never really had a chance to call... um, are we leaving right away? Do you guys mind if I take a few minutes to talk to Tony in private?"
Paula shook her head. "I think we need to take everyone over in a few groups to make sure everyone makes it safely. Take your time. That okay, Ness? Poo?"
Poo nodded, and so did Ness, quickly and emphatically. She guessed even Ness's relatively dull empathy could feel it by now: the tendrils of something sweet and hopeful breaking through the pain and fear in Jeff's and Tony's minds, running down the nerves and finding its focus in their clasped hands. Yes, they could give them some time.
Paula looked over at Ness, to gesture him and Poo out and away, but his bright eyes and nervous little smile made her breath catch in her throat. Was he looking at her? No, she told herself, this wasn't the time. There was too much to do and too many people who needed their help. Later. Sometime later, surely.
Ness was gone.
That wasn't quite right -- he was right there, lying on the stony ground of Fire Spring, chest rising and falling in a peaceful rhythm -- but, for the first time since Threed, Paula couldn't feel his psychic presence beyond the dim background buzz of "still alive." Maybe it was just the brutal heat, the building thirst, or the ache of the last fight, but Paula couldn't concentrate, not even to stop her panic from growing. She glanced first to Jeff, who was fidgeting with something vaguely mechanical-looking to distract himself -- a silly thought, since Jeff couldn't have helped anyway. Instead, she looked to Poo, casting her voice out telepathically to try and keep things quiet. Poo? Can you feel Ness anywhere? I can't. Do you... do you know what's happening?
Poo didn't budge from his meditating posture, but his eyelids flickered open for the briefest moment. No, he replied, calm and even and dead serious. Paula knew by now that he had other moods (he'd started laughing in their presence at some point, a big contagious laugh, and he'd spent half the night after Fourside gushing about Venus), but she was never surprised when he slid back to that serious expression. But I wouldn't worry, he continued. He is far away, but I can feel a tether tying his mind to his body. He's simply traveling to the Distant Realms.
The what? Where? Paula tried to focus harder, and she could start to feel what Poo had mentioned: the a faint line of psychic presence, like a taut string, leading into the stone. Somehow, that wasn't very comforting.
The Distant Realms are places of the wandering mind: the strongest dreams, the restless dead, and some of the strongest psychics. Several of my ancestors have walked them, and my teachers told me I may be able to as well, when I'm older. I may have seen their borders at the end of my training, just before I joined you. It was... I was not ready to pass beyond those borders, but Ness... these are his Sanctuaries, after all. This is his power. He's walking somewhere we cannot follow.
So what do we do? What can we do? Paula thought desperately of trying to send her mind out to follow that string, to make a beacon to guide Ness home in the same way she'd guided the others to them, but a part of her knew she was helpless. Her hands curled into fists, the edges of her nails biting into her palms with an oddly welcome pain. Was she just supposed to sit here and wait, trapped again?
We can only wait, I think, said Poo, and confirmed all her fears. We have to trust him, Paula. I know it hurts terribly, but there's no other way. You haven't told him yet, have you?
For a moment, Paula wanted to play coy, but she knew Poo had figured it all out. She hadn't been subtle, had she? The way she looked at Ness, and the way she tried to stay close... the others must have both known by now, and she'd hoped Ness would have realized, too, without her having to say anything. I think I was waiting for him to put two and two together, she admitted. I was a coward, and now he's gone.
But he'll return. Trust and be patient.
Paula nodded, and they settled back into silent minutes of waiting, punctuated only by the clacking of whatever device Jeff was toying with. At times like this, Paula envied Poo, in the same way that Ness had envied her. She'd practiced, but he'd been taught, somewhere where everyone'd accepted him and expected his power. Maybe when this was all over, she'd have to ask if the masters of Dalaam ever took foreign students. (And then beg her dad to let her study abroad, but who knew about that -- would be he worried, or relieved to have her out of his hair and learning restraint?) For now, she tried to focus on what to tell Ness, about the sweet nervous feelings that skittered up her spine at the thought. She'd already waited too long.
At last, Ness's eyes fluttered open, and everyone sprung to their feet to help him up. "H-hey," Ness began, voice shaky. "Sorry to get you guys worried. I was just... I don't even know. It was..."
"It's okay," said Paula. "You don't have to explain, if you can't." She stepped in closer, lowering her voice, and couldn't help but notice Jeff and Poo step back. "Um, Ness? When you're feeling okay, can I talk to you in private?"
"Okay," he said, with one of those perfect smiles that seemed to come so naturally to him. "Let's get out of here. Besides, I'm parched. You all ready?"
They were all more than ready, and they let Ness whisk them away, back towards the world of fresh air, cold water, and maybe a private conversation.
At the end of the world, in a metal body, the only mind that Paula could feel was Giygas's. From the moment she and the others clanked their way out of the time machine, the hate in the air was oppressive, and it was all Paula could go to keep her own rage from uncurling itself to meet it. The power in her urged her to violence, to strike and shatter and burn, and what she hated most was that those urges were comforting -- they were something of her, at least, while she was in this shell, somehow heavy and weightless at the same time. It felt as if she was piloting a remote-control car from its back seat, or trying to "walk the dog" from the axle of the yo-yo.
There was a crackle in her mind, a broadcast from the crude radio signal that had to serve as their substitute for telepathy. He's here, said Poo, in the grim tone that now sounded almost strange coming from him, made worse by the staticky transmission. Remember yourselves. We are not our arms, our legs, our eyes and ears. We are our minds, and our minds are sacrosanct.
Whatever you say, replied Jeff, in the wavery tones of someone who wasn't used to telepathic projection. My mind may be sacrosanct, but my chassis is stuffed with bottle rockets. I hope Dad built these things fireproof.
Don't worry! Ness, somehow, still sounded like himself, confident and ready for anything. Paula was glad he'd gotten to see his family before all this, even with Onett in the state it was -- there hadn't been time for a phone call home before the surgery. We're not forgetting the shields this time. We're here, we're together, and we're doing this. As one.
Jeff's pseudo-psychic voice was already a little stronger; he was psi-null, but a quick learner. Yeah. Feels weird to be linked with you guys now -- not bad weird, but weird. Different. Does it always feel like this kind of... tangle of wires? Like phone lines?
I think it feels differently for everyone, said Paula, who was finally finding her center enough to speak. Giygas was beginning to die down to a dull background hum, and she could feel them again: Jeff, sparking with both fear and excitement; Poo, mind like a mirror-bright jewel; and Ness, a shining beacon, and yet still the boy who taught her yo-yo tricks, the first night after Threed. The boy who'd spent all night talking to her after Fire Spring, a conversation sealed with his hand in hers and a promise. The boy she loved, and even thinking the word "love" lit a fire of joy in her, joy enough to burn out an eye in the storm of rage and hate all around them. What's important, she said, is that Ness is right, we're together. Ness, will you lead the way? O
f course, said Ness. Always.
And so they went, together, and Paula knew they'd make it home.