Raina looked at the woman who had appeared behind her while she was trying to keep track of Leila and Sensei fight. She had been able to keep up for the beginning of the spar, but as soon as Sensei had created his swords, he and Leila had turned into a pair of blurs that she had been unable to track until a shock of black power had flown at her. She tried to move to avoid it, but it felt like she was stuck in tar, barely able to avoid the attack. Then, as suddenly as the attack had come, it was blocked by a woman who had apparently been standing behind her without anyone noticing.
“Well?” the woman demanded, “Why am I missing a nice movie, and why are you two trying to kill each other?”
Leila cleared her throat, embarrassed, “I'm running a sting on a fighting ring. Jim was helping me with designing a new fighting style that won't give me away.” She sighed, “I didn't mean to sound like it was urgent, sorry Mae.”
The woman – Mae – looked at Leila for a long moment before turning to look at Raina, "I'm assuming that you're her partner on the sting?" she asked.
“Yes ma'am” Raina answered respectfully. No sense in accidentally annoying the woman who could level the building without much effort.
Mae's eyes narrowed, “Leila.” she growled, “What. Did. You. Do.”
“Jim did it!” Leila exclaimed, pointing at her brother. What were they talking about? Mae transferred her glare to Sensei. “Jim.”
“It was an accident!” Senesi protested.
Raina turned to look at him, “What are you talking about Sensei?”
Someone burst out in laughter. Raina turned to the sound, finally noticing a teenage girl who had been standing behind Mae. Jim glared at her, “Shut up Erica! It's not funny!”
Erica forced herself to stop laughing, but the quivering of her shoulders made it obvious that she really found Raina's address for Jim particularly funny. Raina vaguely sensed a telepathic message being sent from Mae to Erica. Whatever the message was, it made the girl switch from being one word away from bursting out into laughter again, to an expression of icy calm.
“Jim?” Erica asked calmly, “Can you fix her in the next twenty seconds?” Her expression hardened for an instant, along with her voice.”Because if you can't, I will turn you into charcoal.”
Leila stepped in front of her brother, “We were going to do that as soon as we finished our match.”
“Convenient.” Erica stared the older woman down. “Don't let me stop you.”
Raina turned back to face Leila, “What are you going to do?”
The other woman sighed, “Just relax. This won't take long.”
Raina opened her mouth to ask another question, but before she could say a word, Leila raised her hand, a white wire flying from her palm into Raina's forehead. Raina gasped as she felt a foreign presence in her mind. It was quickly joined by another consciousness that she somehow recognized as Sensei. A sudden surge of power came out of the first presence, driving Raina to her knees in pain as she felt something in her get burnt out of existence. As abruptly as the assault started, it stopped, leaving Raina reeling from the pain. As Raina tried to remember how to breathe, Jim's mind sent out a tendril of mental power. Unable to resist, Raina was helpless as his mind touched her own. She felt a pulse of power from his mind and something snapped into place. Fury, panic, and fear combined inside her in a storm of emotion that had her trembling on her knees. A sudden burst of clarity shot through her as the Drake's minds retreated.
Raina looked up at Leila, “What,” against her will, her voice trembled, “did you do to me?”
The other woman looked at her, “I'm sorry.”
Sorry? That's what you have to say? Raina felt a buzzing in her ears. You r*ped my mind!
A hand touched her shoulder. Raina turned to see Erica watching her with sympathetic eyes, "How about, you go downstairs and take a hot shower. They have a sonic cleaner if what you're wearing isn't too delicate. Once you're ready," Erica's eyes went past her, hardening as they focused on the Drake siblings, "we'll talk."
Suddenly exhausted, Raina nodded. Erica helped her stand up accompanying her past Mae to the elevator. Suddenly, Erica turned, firing a blast of electricity from her hand. Raina half turned around, seeing Erica standing, glaring at Leila. “Make one move in this direction, and I won't miss. Ask your brother if you think I'm bluffing.”
“Erica.” Mae's tone warned her daughter to calm down.
The elevator dinged, Raina turned back, entering it, followed by Erica. The girl didn't seem to have much to say as the elevator took them to the hallway, and she led Raina into the apartment, showing her to the bathroom. That was fine, Raina didn't want to talk much either.
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Raina stripped, opening the cleaner and throwing her sweaty clothes into the cleaner in the wall. Turning the shower up to as hot as she could stand, Raina, tried to come to terms with what had just happened. The Drakes performance earlier hadn't been any sort of attack, she was sure of it. That feeling she had when Jim had done... whatever he did, it was like something that she was missing had been slotted back into its place. Then she had felt. A shiver ran through her body despite the hot water. She had felt. She hadn't felt anything since. Calm Down. Jim's voice echoed in her memories. He had forced her to calm down somehow when he told her – ordered her – to stop panicking. She began to shake, finally internalizing what had happened. What that meant. Jim didn't need to use any sort of connection in order to control her. All he had to do was give the order, and she would obey. Call off the sting. Leave. She could do it. All she had to do was tell Purdue what happened and they would open a case into the mental assault. A pit opened in her stomach as she realized that the investigation would be done by the BPI. Leila would use her connections to make sure that nothing happened.
Okay Raina, calm down. Suddenly struck by the irony of using the same words that Jim had used earlier, Raina started laughing hysterically, letting out all of the tension and stress that had built up over the day. After a few minutes, Raina took a breath, in control of herself for what felt like the first time all day. She closed her eyes, letting herself relax some more before she decided what to do.
Okay Raina, options. She had three choices, leave and tell Purdue that she was mentally assaulted by Leila's brother in order to call the op off. Second, she could keep the op running, and refuse to have anything more than absolutely necessary with either of the Drakes. Third... she could continue working with the Drakes, with some restrictions. She immediately discarded the second, there was time for taking the middle ground, this was not it. The first option was tempting, safe, but for some possible backlash on her career, not really much of a loss when the alternative was risking her mind. He thought you would help him. She gritted her teeth at the memory. Never again. She had entered the FBI so that she could help people. Yeah, but you never had to risk yourself like this. Never had to worry that your own partner would take over your mind. Mae would keep them from doing anything to her. Don't be ridiculous, Mae isn't going to be there the entire time, and it's not like she's going to stop Jim from talking to you. She would be on her own once Mae left. It's too risky. No. No, it wasn't. Dom had risked his life to slow that monster down. He lost it too. Do you want to die? No. No, she didn't want to die, she didn't want the Drakes to take over her mind again. Another image appeared in her mind. Two figures fighting, moving so fast that all she could see were flashes of light, a flash of black heading at her only to shatter against an invisible wall. Jim's voice, came to mind, calmly instructing her on methods of using her psi that she had never considered. Another voice, one she couldn't place, from her childhood. The reason dragons have gold is because, what we need most, is often where we least want to be. In order to reach our greatest potential, in order to get that horde of gold, we need to face the dragon. And win. Sure there is some danger. Dragons wouldn't be dragons, honey, if they couldn't eat you. But if you need that reward. If what the dragon guards is so valuable that you find you can't do without it. Face the dragon, Raina. And if you get burned, what do you do? Raina smiled, finally placing her uncle's voice. Another man who fell to his dragon, she hadn't thought about him for years. Put some cream on the burns, rest up, and come back in a fireproof suit. She gave a small chuckle, Sebastian had been a character. So much like Dom. Raina turned the shower off, somehow decided on her path. Now to make myself some fireproof armor. Jim had given her some pointers, Raina used them as well as she could, breathing to center herself.
First, make an image. Raina sat cross-legged on the bathroom mat, imagining an avatar of herself, standing in a grassy field that stretched to the horizon. Defenses, the field shrunk to an island, floating in space, her avatar stretching out her arms, creating a defensive field around the platform. Next feel your power. Raina reached inside herself, and push it into the image, giving it substance. It felt like she had a pond of distilled psychic power inside of her, Raina created a stream leading from that pond to the image of the avatar and it's defensive barrier. Something clicked in her mind, the image flickering for a moment before becoming more solid in her imagination. Raina sagged, her first psychic program taking a toll on her stamina. A slow smile spread across her face as she realized what she had just done. Not time to celebrate yet, she reminded herself. Armor is nice, but something that can eliminate intruders would be better.
Raina thought for a moment, coming up with what she needed for her active defenses. First, they would have to identify any foreign influence in her mind, then take steps to destroy them. The avatar stretched out her arms again, creating two groups of spheres, the set on the right, was white, and designed to constantly scan her mind. The group on the left was red when the white spheres identify something wrong, the red spheres would then destroy it. Raina created another stream, powering the spheres. A bolt of white-hot pain split her head. Raina barely held herself back from screaming, it felt like her brain was melting. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the pain receded to a dull throb. Note to self, don't create powerful psionic programs when you're already almost tapped out. Raina checked her mental plane and grinned despite her pain when she saw that everything was still intact with the defensive spheres patrolling the area around her floating island. She walked over to the cleaner, taking her freshly cleaned clothes out. Now, let's face that dragon, shall we?