October 30th, 1996

General POV

“Ughhh,” Desmond groaned, waking up from a deep sleep. He looked around, finding himself in an all-white room. He was in a huge hospital bed. Lethargically he tried to get up before suddenly the door opened, revealing his six-year-old self.

“Yo.” Trey said. taking a seat next to him. Trey reconnected with him to get him up to speed on the situation. A lot had happened in the past couple of days.

“I was out for five days & you had to use the Angel's Breath card. Damn, we were going to save that for emergencies. The damage was that bad, huh.” Desmond said.

“I tried every method of healing before using it. Believe me man. Everything else only kept you stable. Jarvis theorized that the damage was to the soul as well as the body. He also concluded that Angel’s Breath only worked in conjunction with all the other healings I tried. The scariest discovery was that I grew just as weak when I tried to reconnect with you in that state. If we were connected when we tried our experiment, we both could’ve died.” Trey explained. Desmond nodded understanding.

“Thanks. Especially for sticking with me when you wanted to stop. I have to know did it work?” Desmond asked hopefully. Trey smacked him on the head in response.

“I didn’t do all this shit to save your ass for you to only care about our experiment. I don’t care if you view yourself as just a clone or my brother. Hell, from the perspective that you’re another version of myself. I care about you just as much as I would care about myself. Stop being a jackass throwing your life away to gain power. There’s no point in becoming strong if I have to have alternate versions of myself die. We are never doing that again unless every other avenue has failed. Test me & I swear to Beyond I’ll use everything in my power to stop you.” Trey scowled at him. Desmond meekly nodded in agreement.

‘Who knew I could be so scary’ Desmond thought.

“As for the experiment, I have good news. Our ingenious idea of boosting Power Augmentation with Power Augmentation worked. From what I learned, Power Augmentation can now boost your own abilities and others, upgrade any power we have to our current tier, & theoretically boost any power two levels above our current tier. There are drawbacks, however. If the body, soul, or mind can’t handle the increase in power, we will end up in a similar situation. I tested it already on a clone with telepathy. I had a splitting headache for ten hours when the clone evaporated, transferring me his experience.

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Another thing is that we're currently at the Nuclear tier for the brief moment you had that power. This is only by system standards, not in strength. We still have to work to reach that strength truly. The other benefit is our discount on points for future purchases in our current tier.” Trey said, giving him some good news.

“Despite the drawbacks, that is still amazing. Imagine Nen & all its applications at higher levels, man. Biotics, Technopathy, or Chakra, the list goes on and on. It makes all the pain I went through worth it.” Desmond exclaimed, thinking about all the new ways to use his powers. Trey gave him a chilling smile that broke him from his thoughts.

“I see you still believe what we did was a good idea. I may be a narcist, but I’m not crazy enough to argue with myself. Someone else will set you straight.” Trey said, getting up from his seat, leaving the room. Desmond was confused at his comment. As Trey walked out, he sent one last message telepathically.

‘Oh, one last thing I had to tell Jamie of our little stunt when she came by to see you. She’s spent every day since ‘educating’ me on why making such a rash decision was wrong. I at least had the benefit of knowing and admitting I was wrong. It’s too bad for you that she’s right outside & heard everything you just said. Have fun trying to explain your point of view to her, man,’ Trey told him.

“You sun of ……..” The arrival of a furious woman stopped Desmond's words. Her anger was shown in her cold demeanor. Jamie’s eyes bored into his soul, telling him how she felt. Desmond didn’t need to use his telepathy to understand. From the moment she appeared, he knew he had messed up. Standing right in front of him, she began a chilling speech.

“The only man who has ever bested me lost himself to addiction for a time because of my selfish actions. Causing his addiction was the only regret I ever had about that man. Corrupting his beautiful mind wasn’t worth any monetary gain I could make. You have the opposite problem as him. Your addiction is overworking yourself when you face problems. Unlike him, you let me be as selfish as I want. You care nothing about what I do as long as your grand goals are accomplished. Selflessness, to a fault, under almost any other circumstance, is a great quality for a person to have. However, this is not the case. You’ve seen my life. You know how I deal with people who threaten people I am interested in. Them being one and the same is no different. What you call yourself or what body you’re in makes no difference. I won’t allow it for any reason. You threatened my interests, my dear Desmond. So it’s time for me to ‘reeducate’ you on what is and isn’t acceptable.” Jamie finished with a crazed look in her eyes.