I took a deep, steadying breath and centered myself. Like some silver-haired sage who meditated on mountaintops, skin bronzed from facing the rising sun too many times, I focused.

I visualized, meditated. Stilled the random flickers of thoughts in my mind, shepherding them back to the one locus, the one goal, the true objective I was after.

Every scrawny fiber of muscle in my body felt like taut steel. The breath circulating in and out of my half-developed lungs was a tornado in slow motion, spinning in one direction, flowing like water, and my blood, my body's energies, flowing with it. My eyes were shut tight, and in the dark behind them, I saw only my target.

It was there. It was a mind, so far beneath me -- physically -- so as to only barely be in my range. But it was also beneath me in the other sense, it was missing pieces of itself, it seemed. Namely, thought. A mind without thought. Puzzling, to say the least.

But I couldn't puzzle. I'd been puzzling. I'd been talking and cajoling and demanding, I tried everything to that mind, except trying. So here I was doing exactly that, working my damndest to open as wide a connection between us as we could, and force myself in. Have a look around, see what made it tick. Or more specifically, what made it not do that.

I wasn't sure what to do with my hands. The legs were easy, you fold them up under you until they're an uncomfortable knot. Lotus pose, it was called, and it was uncomfortable by design so ancient monks didn't fall asleep while meditating. Good to know things hadn't changed that much in the last few thousand years.

Urk, I'd sidetracked myself. Gently, I steered my own thoughts inward and down, focusing back on the thing below. I'd named him Bob, just to have something to focus on. I breathed in, held it, and breathed out, envisioning the letters BOB enormous in my mind, pushing my brain as hard as I could into the consciousness below.

It felt like I was there. It was hard to tell; being in people's minds constantly was like being in water to a fish. Sure, I noticed when it was moving around me, and I definitely noted its absence, but to tell whether I was truly in the mind or not, when there was...just nothing there? No feedback, no thought, no shock at having something crammed inside its head?

Either I was in, and there simply wasn't anything to see, or it was a mind even slipperier than the toads, so slick and squishy that I kept impacting off without even knowing it.

It reminded me of trying to work on Apotheosis, the bear which had taken up territory within range of my prison, way back in the day. I'd learned so much from that pet project, had never really worked with animals before then, and making the jump to a lower lifeform was...well it required some changes with how I handled the mind. I'd had years there, though. This...whatever-it-was, I'd been working on for only about a day.

And still, less progress here than there. I refocused again, pushing myself in, and in the background, trying to think of something, anything new I could try which would elicit a response.

So I sat and focused. Legs folded, hands clasped, mind empty but for the one critical impulse. My limbs were as taut iron, my breath was a tornado. All of me was set, pushing in one direction, a unity of mind and body and will.

And when I thought I was in, I set that trinity to act. I thrust myself as far in as I could reach, and before I could slip out, my consciousness exploded inside him with a single, inescapable thought.

[HEY FUCKER, RISE AND FUCKIN' SHINE.]

"Ow?" Athan said, and I blinked and noticed he was standing there. Holding his head, as people tended to do when around me for some reason.

[Oh hey, didn't see you there,] I commented.

"Saga, people are still here, still evacuating. Can you speak?"

"Yeah, right," I said, remembering myself. It'd been a while since I'd been so focused on anything, I kinda forgot about the rest of the time and place. Not that I much cared if a bunch of refugees were hearing voices. If anything, it'd motivate 'em to clear out faster.

Also, I thought, as I resumed my normal self, Athan was kind of exaggerating. The city was almost deserted at this point. It was lovely, just a few stragglers, a nice pleasant reprieve from the normal bustle of too-many goddamn minds. Cities should always be like this. I should start a new trend of causing panics and evacuations.

"How'd it go? Can you talk and walk? We're in kind of a hurry."

I shook my head. "I'm still working on it."

"You are?" He looked at me with enough surprise and disappointment on his face that I didn't even need to see it resounding in his mind.

Which, y'know, irked me. "Well, sweetheart, some things are actually difficult to do, and can't just happen in a day. I'll have you know I've made great progress in getting through to Bob--"

"His name is Bob?"

"Well. No. I named him that."

"So you don't even know his name?"

"Dude, would you like me to build you a cross so you can finish crucifying me? I'm working on it."

"We're just in a time crisis here. Things are going wrong, and we need you."

I was gonna ask, but it was easier just to crack open his mind and see what all the hubbub was about. He frowned as I rifled around, finding everything I needed just laying out on the surface. Didn't even make it interesting to chase down, tsk.

Although, after failing so long, it was nice to reaffirm that I was, in fact, awesome, still.

"Mmm, Lia, huh?" I asked. "She's digging through Las Vegas by herself looking for that dumpy Japanese girl?"

"Her name's Chiho, and you know that. You lived together."

"And no correction on her being dumpy. Nice."

He sighed. "Saga, Justice is bearing down on the city, and I need to be there for her. Come with us."

I shook my head. "So that I can, what? I'm useless against him."

"You are?"

"Sure am. You don't remember, I take it."

He shook his head, but in his eyes, in the edges of his mind, I felt the doubt, the inklings of remembrance of something elusive.

"You remember a few days back when we were all face-to-face with him in the air over Georgia?"

"No," he said, frowning.

"Yeah, me neither. But it happened, I can see it clear as day in other people's memories. You do remember getting spaced and spending time with Aesa, but you can't remember before that, and you can't remember after, when we fought Director Hall, can you?'

The doubt in his mind had crept in as the realization struck him. "Did you...tamper with my memories, Saga?"

I chuckled. "Sure did. And in fact, you did mine, too. Both of us just ripped out of each other's heads what happened then. You wouldn't notice, of course. Forgetting a memory doesn't set off alarm bells in your head. But for me, it's like I've got a bruise that I keep touching and remembering 'oh yeah, that hurts'. I think you were a little indelicate in removing those thoughts from me."

"Um...sorry? But what's this got to do with anything, I'm so confused."

"I was lost too," I giggled. "Until I saw what the others did. Being near him, near Justice, it...did something to my head. I dunno what anymore, because you cut it out of me, but it kicked my ass. And then it kicked your ass too, somehow, and I'm guessing that's cuz you went in my head and whatever happened to me, happened to you through me."

I frowned as I looked at the missing pieces of the puzzle in my mind. "What exactly he did or can do, I dunno. And that's kinda frustrating and pisses me off. But what's clear is, I've got to stay the hell away from him, or he kills me mentally."

"It can't be that bad, can it? You're our heaviest hitter, we need you."

I jabbed my finger at him and summoned a thought to the forefront of his mind. The last time he saw Justice, in the ruined courtroom above Soran's recent failed power-heist.

How pants-shittingly terrified Athan had been. The pure emotion exuding off of Justice, enough to overwhelm Athan's conscious mind, just by presence alone. And those eyes, seething with blackness behind them that was constantly writhing, never still, indiscernible, but wrong.

We both shuddered. He rubbed his goosebumps with discomfort.

"Yeah, so you remember that," I told him. "Now imagine being immersed in that. I don't know what it's like, but it broke me once, and I don't think we should try again."

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"M-maybe not," he said, his voice valiantly trying to pass for more than a whimper. I had to laugh at him, and when I did, his fear broke into irritation at me. Which was good. I didn't want him afraid.

"Okay. Sorry for asking. You probably shouldn't face him then." He frowned. "You didn't have to do that to my head though. Kind of a bitch move," he muttered.

I laughed again. "Dunno if anyone's ever told you, but you're pretty stubborn. Better to just go for the jugular than argue in circles for an hour."

"Okay," he sighed. "Well. Do you think you can finish up with Bob soon? Even if not to put down Justice, we really need you right now."

"Yeah, cuz you got fired?"

"Seems that way. I really thought Lia would be able to handle the President. He's just one guy." Athan frowned bitterly as he shook his head.

"And she's just one girl."

"She's the best," he said with absolute conviction. "Something must have happened outside her control."

"Shit, Athan. I wish a man would talk about me the way you talk about your sister. Just hearing you speak with such confidence, whew." I made a fanning gesture at my capris. "I need a cleanup in aisle one."

He scrunched up his face. "Dude. Ew. That's my sister."

I giggled relentlessly at his distress. But he didn't seem to be in the mood to have happiness or shit like that in his life, which kinda killed my buzz there. I cleared my throat and continued as we were.

"I don't think I'm making much headway with Bob, but I feel like I need to try. I'm getting through, I'm almost certain of that. But nothing I'm saying to him is leaving an impact. It's like...maybe he doesn't speak English. My next strategy was gonna involve kidnapping one of these lovely refugees and seeing if they could babble at him in...I dunno...hindi or something."

"Have you tried Chinese?"

I jumped. Friggin' AEGIS was always invisible to me. How long had she been standing there behind me?

"Why would I try Chinese?" I asked.

"Because this used to be a predominantly Chinese district, before the war," she explained, pushing up her glasses like they were on a short-circuit to her condescension drive. "If the entity in question--"

"His name's Bob."

She shook her head and sighed. "If the entity in question is like Our God of Oasis, it might be really, really old. And from what you said of its mental non-existence, maybe it was worn down or made insane by generations of being trapped and isolated."

Now that was an interesting thought. Having spent a hundred years underground myself, I could somewhat sympathize. I knew Bob wasn't a code-X, or at least, that's what it felt like. Which meant his mind was down there alone this whole time. I tried to think a little about how that might feel, until I quit because of how much that sucked.

As much as I objected to AEGIS being a know-it-all constantly, I did still surreptitiously give Bob another poke with a ni hao. To no reaction at all still, unfortunately.

Again, it felt like he heard me. Just, what I said wasn't anything he cared about hearing. To the extent that the...mind, or whatever that passed for one down there...it didn't even flinch, didn't even react. I wasn't sure how it was possible for Bob to be interested in what I was saying but also apparently not listening at all at the same time.

Which kinda led to the conclusion that maybe AEGIS was right. About the other thing. That Bob was just a broken mind. It was like...putting passwords into a computer terminal that always told you 'NOPE. WRONG, BITCH' before you even hit enter. He wasn't processing what I said, so what could it matter what I was saying?

I just...had the inclination that he was. Somehow. But that made no sense.

I sighed. "Yeah, okay. I guess I'm done here. If it's really that important. If it's for Lia."

"I really appreciate it. Karu's on base still, she said she can get the Sirius refueled by just leaving it somewhere conspicuous with a messed-up work order put halfway into the system. I guess she'd know how military bases work. But the plan is, again, to be in it and off as soon as refueling is done."

"Sure, let's go," I sighed.

Fuckin' Bob. Why'd he have to be so difficult? And enticing. I just wanted to stay and poke at him again for a few days. It was like getting a hit with a metal detector on a beach, and then quitting after digging for an hour. Something was there.

But at some point, people had to cut and run, right? Nobody had unlimited time to screw with this shit.

Well. Nobody but me. However this all panned out, I knew I'd be back here. Might give me something to do in the event everyone I kinda-cared-for-but-not-really died horribly in the near future. Which was looking likely, given that Athan wanted to fly towards Justice.

I stood up and dusted myself off. For one moment there, before my body reset, my legs ached from unfolding out of that weirdass uncomfortable lotus pose. But then they went right back to being pathetic noodle legs, same as ever.

"Then what's the plan?" I asked, as we started walking back towards the base. "Just fly me around over a hundred-thousand refugees and see if I can't pick out Chiho so that Lia will stop freaking out?"

Athan frowned, and I could see bitter clouds toiling in his mind. "Actually...and I don't mean to be crass when I say this...but I don't think Chiho is a real high priority right now."

I gasped at him in mock shock. "Athan Ashton! I cannot believe the nerve of you. Chiho is your friend, are you just going to abandon her to the thousands of trained professionals who are coordinating this evacuation effort?"

"Well. No, I kinda can't. Because Lia won't."

I cackled. "Oh, I see. So you just want me to use that little compel, and get her to stop worrying about Chiho, then?"

"What? No!" He looked at me in alarm. "I didn't even think of that. I was just...I needed…"

I laughed with even more sinister-ey-ness as he flailed. He didn't have a plan, just that stupid big-brother urge to be there for his sister no matter what. Fuckin' idiot.

"She'll be fine, you know," AEGIS insisted. And I realized by her tone this wasn't the first time she'd argued it. "You said yourself you believe in how capable she is."

"Yeah but...that was before she was stranded, unexpectedly. She can't have anticipated we'd get fired and cut off like this. Now she's effectively alone out there, without anyone or anything, caught up in the evacuations...I can't just leave her and hope it works out."

"So it's not about her at all," AEGIS confirmed. "It's about you panicking."

"I'm not panicking," he said, though the pace he was forcing me to keep up with towards the base was as telling as his thoughts. "I'll just feel a lot better once we're all reunited. Besides, as Saga pointed out, I don't exactly have a plan right now, and Lia would be invaluable in helping us make one."

"The plan seems to be to collect exceptional Exhumans and unleash them all on Justice at once," AEGIS commented. "Given that we've already done so with Trish and Dragon, now."

I stopped. "No way. You guys tamed the Dragon?"

"I wouldn't put it that way," Athan sighed. I'd have expected him to be happier with that news, but instead he seemed...very worn down. Which was perplexing.

"We learned a lot about dysfunctional people," AEGIS suggested. "Dragon is...well he's sort of exhaustingly difficult, even when not trying to kill you, as it turns out."

"...date," Athan mumbled, shaking his head. Inside of there, I could see a jumble of emotions, fear and anger, which were expected...as well as a heaping pile of confusion and irritation. What I did not expect was the sympathy.

"Well, that's fine then," I said. "We'll just take our time, picking up people who are probably hostile to our cause, and while we do, Justice noms down on the world. It'll be like a fun race! Like one of those potato sack ones. Except if you trip over the bag, whoops, there goes New York!"

Athan started walking at redoubled pace. AEGIS kept up with him for like, two strides before looking back at me, and then, apologetically almost, scooping me into her arms and pounding off the pavement to catch up.

Karu wasn't in any better spirits when we found her. Neither were any of the flunkies still keeping the base working. Everyone was equal parts doom and gloom.

"There you are, we must be swift," Karu said. "Military police have already been by once, they are looking for us."

I cocked my head and realized she wasn't in her usual attire. Not the first thing I tended to notice about people, their appearances. She was in a green air force uniform, too small around her chest, with a brimmed hat pulled low over her eyes, as though to scream 'this is a disguise!'. Not that anyone would be looking at her face in that ensemble.

"Good job keeping a low profile," Athan said to them. If it weren't so amusing, I would tell the poor bastard just how obvious he sometimes was. Karu just sighed and boarded with the rest of us, going down a list of pre-takeoff checks.

"To what location are we headed?" she asked from the cockpit as we buckled in. "Air control is inquiring, and it would be best to answer in earnest, to avoid suspicion."

"To Vegas, of course," Athan answered at once.

"Is that really the best option?" AEGIS asked, frowning. "I know Lia's important...but it feels like there's so much to do."

Athan sighed, slumping in his chair, nearly falling out, but for the harness holding him in. Experimentally, I gave it a try, and found if I wriggled just right, I could slide right through the harness -- what fun! "I don't know," he lamented. "I agree, there is so much to do, but I don't know what of it we actually can achieve. Losing the XPCA was huge, it feels like we need to get them back before something horrible happens...but honestly, I'm not sure we were directing them any better than any random general might."

"Oh don't say that," AEGIS chided as she scooped me back into my seat and tightened the buckles. "Sure, things weren't exactly what you wanted, but we did save a lot more Exhumans than others would in our position. If nothing else, you were there to make sure Trish made it out, and with her ability to cut through Justice's powers, that might be all the difference."

"I guess." He sighed heavily. "But I also don't know what to do. I don't know who to talk to, or...I guess...get Saga close to, in order to fix that. The President, I guess."

"Who is," Karu cut in, "at the moment, in undisclosed airspace aboard Air Force One, surrounded by a monumental number of interceptors, with the orders to attack any unauthorized vessels on approach. I do not think I could get Saga into range."

"Right," AEGIS sat down, buckling herself in now that everyone else was secured. "Well, we could, we'd just have to work our way up. Get Saga to someone who knows where to go, get her to someone who can get us access, and then get her up there. But that'd take time."

"So in the meanwhile, and...I don't mean to sound like this is just the default, but let's go after Lia. I'm sure she's fine," he added "but...we can make sure she's doing okay and out of Justice's path, and then we can make plans about...the president or whatever."

"Sounds like a plan, I guess," AEGIS sighed.

"Sounds like you guys are gonna owe me so much when we're done with this," I yawned. "All your plans are just bring Saga to this-or-that dude and have her fuck with him. I should get paid more."

"What would you want? A cookie?" Karu intoned as the fans kicked on. I could feel the entire craft vibrating under my bony bootie.

"Maybe. Those cream filled ones." I batted my eyes at Athan. "Know what I mean, cookie?"

"Not too late to rewrite the plan to involve dropping her in the Pacific," AEGIS suggested. I just laughed.

"Our flightpath is set. We'll be arriving in Vegas a paltry few hours before Justice does. I pray this is not in error," Karu informed us.

"Me too," Athan agreed. "I'll just feel much better once I know she's okay."

AEGIS shook her head. "I hope so. I hope...what we find there...doesn't make you just feel worse, instead."