Jim let Raina out of his simspace, stunned by her victory. Class Three psions, even skilled, well-trained psions, which Raina definitely qualified for after around a subjective year of his training, didn't defeat Class Four psions in a straightforward fight. He double-checked the variation on Claudia that he had been using to counter Raina. Still, a Four, although his restrictions on her Kine abilities had probably played into the result of the battle, somewhat.

Jim ran a review of the data for an explanation of what had happened. He sighed, Claudia's habit of not letting go of her weapon had always been her main weakness. It was ironic, he supposed, that someone who had convinced him to make sure that he was as capable unarmed as he was with a weapon, someone who was herself equally talented in both armed and unarmed combat, would be functionally incapable of releasing her weapon when it got trapped. Jim shook off the flash of rage that thinking of his friend tended to bring up, switching his attention to his analysis of Raina's performance.

While her ultimate victory had been due in large part to the fact that when she trapped Claudia's katana, Claudia hadn't let go and torn Raina apart with her bare hands, that didn't make Raina's win any less impressive. On the contrary, she had first set dozens of psionic bombs inside the cliff, and after detonating a large number of them, she had used a combination of Enhance and Psychic ability to track the remaining bombs, which she then set off in a series of perfectly focused explosions, turning what had been 'simply' a rain of rocks, into a lethal mortar barrage. Then, she had used one of the remaining rocks as a perfectly targeted bullet – on Claudia's injured side – all within seconds, and with a sword stuck through her shoulder. Absolutely amazing. Jim smiled and left his mind to congratulate his student – and to remind her not to get too overconfident. A whirlpool of emotions hit him immediately.

Raina's emotions were almost as chaotic as they had been the time he had triggered her panic attack. She was shaking, pale, disbelief and horror, mixing with terror and self-loathing radiating off of her. A ray of pride shone for a bare instant only to be drowned by the storm of negative emotion.

She feels like she killed Claudia, Jim realized, cursing his stupidity in springing this on her before she was ready. While Raina had killed previously in his simulations, all of her kills had been 'bots, randomly generated for whatever test he happened to be giving her. Claudia had been fourteen when she was murdered. Idiot, idiot, idiot! You just made your student kill a teenage girl and you wanted to congratulate her for it?

“I... killed her.” Raina's voice was soft, still finding the reality nearly impossible to believe.

Lightning ran through Jim's veins at her words, “No. You didn't.”

Raina looked at him then, the tears finally falling, “Like hell I didn't! I saw her face -” her voice trailing off into sobs.

“Raina.” His voice as hard as the steel will that he use to leash overwhelming urge to hunt the b*sterd who he knew was responsible. "I know who killed her. And if I thought it was you, you would either be dead... or wish you were."

Raina stared at him, “What?”

Jim suddenly recalled the situation, “You didn't kill anyone. It was just an illusion.” He made a conscious effort to soften his voice and expression, fighting harder to control his temper and calm Raina. From her expression and emotions, it seemed that while he hadn't been entirely successful at controlling himself, she had at least noticed the effort, and basic logic of his statement.

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“Who was she?” Raina's voice was soft, and if her face and emotions didn't match her tone, he wasn't going to comment.

"Her name was Claudia Reiss," Jim felt his rage start to cool as he spoke, "she was... a good friend who helped me get myself together after... I went through a bad part of my life."

“What happened to her?”

“She was found one morning at the bottom of the stairs, her neck broken as if she had died from the fall.” Somehow, the act of saying it was calming him, taking the rage that held him whenever he thought about Claudia, and while the fire wasn't quite going down, it was becoming... more distant. It was still there, just more quiet.

“You don't believe that it was an accident.” Not a question.

“She was a Class Four. The girl could dance on water.” A faint smile touched his lips at the memory, “She didn't fall.”

“Nobody believed you?” Raina's voice was soft, and the sorrow Jim felt from her was touching, if misplaced. He didn't deserve any of it.

“They believed me,” he admitted, “they just didn't let me track the guy who did it. He escaped eventually – got help from a teleporter.”

Raina took a deep breath, “Thanks for that, I'm feeling better now.” She looked around, embarrassed, “So, have you been in touch with Mae?”

Jim let the awkward change of topic slide, “Erica sent me the data on most of the rings two days ago, you didn't get it?”

“Yeah, but I was kind of hoping that her mother – who is apparently in charge of an organization that has quite the need for information, and is also your foster mother – would be able to confirm some of that?”

Jim laughed, “Erica is an extremely gifted electrokinetic, she can actually interpret electronic data. If she puts her stamp on anything, it's probably good.” He quickly flashed her images of Mor and Lee, along with their full names.

A brief flutter of surprise ran through her, although he wasn't sure if it was about Erica's abilities or the fact that he actually knew people who would be able to infiltrate what was, according to Erica's report a pretty tight ring, ran by a pre-Advent CIA operative.

“How do you know these people, if you don't mind me asking?” Raina asked, cautious, she had previously tried to get Jim to tell her about his past. An attempt that Jim had refused in no uncertain terms, and increased her training load shortly after.

Jim hesitated, he was feeling more open than normal but... “”

Raina winced a bit under the pressure of the power he put behind the combined audible and telepathic commands. While he hadn't outright attacked her mind and forced her to never speak of anything he would tell her, the pressure that he put into the command would push her to avoid the topic in the future, and she knew it. Jim also knew that she could get rid of it within ten minutes, he had taught her nothing less. Hopefully, she would see the compulsion as the assist in avoiding the topic that he meant it as, and not the violation which it admittedly qualified as. Raina met his eyes, anger flaring for a second, replaced by a combination of understanding, resignation, and interest. She nodded.

"When I was ten, I was kidnapped. Long story short, it sucked and one of the kids managed to start a minor revolt. We got to a phone and I called Mae. She traced the call – Erica hadn't learned how to yet – and flew in to rescue us. She and Howard helped a lot in finding homes for the ones who didn't have anywhere to go to. Not all of us are really... good at staying in one place, so we set up a network for us to keep tabs on each other so we would know if someone disappeared or needed help. Mor and Lee are like this sort of stuff so I asked them to get a job with Jhon Martin as soon as I found out he was the security head." He gave a wry smile, "The only hard part was convincing Mor to not join as a fighter."

“I'm guessing that she's something of an adrenaline junkie?” Raina asked jokingly.

"The only times I've ever seen Mor actually calm is after she's had a match," Jim replied, being very careful to not scare Raina anymore than he already had today with just how furious that thought made him. "She seems to find beating people up, therapeutic."

Jim got up, signaling the end to the conversation. “According to Erica's information, the first ring that you and Leila should enter will be opening next week. Rest up and relax. You won't be getting much of either for the next few months.”