These two made me uncomfortable, especially Balto. He was renowned for his control over his Ability and had an Ace-level kill count; not only that but he also had been known to fly off the handle randomly and attack people.

"Bite me, Fairaday," she said in a tone that would have been spiteful to anyone, but I knew she was being flirtatious.

"You let your subordinates speak to you that way. that's a sign of weakness, Commander Fairaday, and weakness is a sin in these lands," Balto Said harshly, flashing his powers with each word, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

But it didn't even faze Kris; she walked up to the table and extended her hand to Balto and Jimmy. "Commanders Reinhart and Bovarnik, a pleasure to finally meet both of you."

Jimmy returned the handshake pleasantly; however, Balto grasped her hand tightly, glared at her, and flexed his Ability. the air around him crackled softly as he released a wave of electricity into her hand.

My Ability allowed Kris to use me as a ground so that she would not be affected by Balto's wattage output. All it took was Kris casually brushing her leg against my arm. This small, unnoticed act got her out of harm's way. However, with the redirection of energy, every hair on my body stood up, and every nerve went nuts with pain.

But I didn't flinch. I had been through much worse than this. But Pride aside, Balto was flexing; he was trying to test Kris; in his eyes, she was just a woman who was most likely bedding her commanding officer.

Electricity flowed freely through Kris and into me, but neither of us budged. I just smiled pleasantly and cracked my neck. Static energy crackled around Kris and I, and we acted as if nothing was happening.

"Now, Commander Reinhart, if you challenge my Commander and me, you will surely lose." I felt her tense, which meant she was about to show off as well, and if she did things, that would mean our negotiations were about to go south, so I stepped in and put my hand on hers.

She instantly let go of Balto's, giving me time to grab his hand instead. I just grinned because the second my hand met his, I let loose a current of electricity five times as powerful as what he had just attempted to hurt my second-in-command with.

This action caused Balto to stiffen immediately.

"What's wrong? Can't take what you dish out," I chided with a charming smile as if talking down to a child.

Horror crossed Balto's face as he realized why I was the Commander of the Unitist Faction. But what he was thinking was incorrect. He assumed I was like him, an Electrokinetic; however, I was far from that. My Ability was one that only a handful of others have ever had.

I was a Conduit, meaning I could absorb another's powers temporally and use them without cost. However, only a select few knew that it wasn't something you said to everyone. It's one of those things that puts a massive target on your head.

Nearly every Ability gained from the Requiem has a cost to it. The running theory is that the drawbacks, or Toll, is some countermeasure for using a higher beings power; these costs became a form of checks and balances: cause and effect. Nature has been known to create these balancing acts, and abilities were no different.

The only Ability that has no drawback is Conduction. There are multiple types of conduits; some need to be in the same general vicinity to use someone's powers; however, I need to have it used on me or physically touch the users' skin.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

It was carefully planned between her, and I had assumed that the second she shook his hand, he would show off and try to scare us.

That's why she was so close to me. The skin-on-skin contact between Kris's thigh and my hand was enough for me to hop into the stream of energy.

Kris used herself as a circuit between Balto and me so that I could indirectly gain his power and use it as a spectacle of strength over him. It worked beautifully.

For a tense few seconds, Balto struggled, trying to free himself from my grasp, but I pumped more power into his body, locking his grip on mine.

Realizing escape wasn't an option, a light went off in his mind, and he decided to meet me back with more energy, so my response was to circulate it right back to him.

All the hair on both of our bodies was starting to stand on end, and the lights were getting brighter as electricity flowed freely into the air around us. I'm sure if anyone walked in and saw us, it would be quite a sight since, frankly, we both looked quite funny.

Balto's face turned bright red with rage as he started to slump. His Toll was kicking in. One thing to remember is that aside from personal experience, there's no natural way to know what someone's Toll is on their Ability's use.

But if I had to guess, I'd say Balto was starting to cook himself internally. His skin started to turn bright red, a sign that I was, in fact, correct. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he stopped pushing energy into me and collapsed on the table.

"I yield," he said breathlessly. Jimmy looked from the exhausted Balto to Kris, who was grinning evilly, then to me.

"So that's your ability; you're an Electrokinetic, and a powerful one at that," Jimmy said as he placed his hand on the back of Balto's neck. He gripped the skin, scruffed him like a mother cat would her kittens, and closed his eyes.

The sunburned look of Balto's skin turned back to his normal Pale complexion, and Jimmy, in turn, started to turn red. But it turned back to the regular Pale shortly after.

"And you're a healer. So the leaders of the Outlanders are a Healer and an Electrokinetic." Kris said, crossing her right leg over her left.

"Our abilities are a closely guarded secret," Balto countered with a frown after fully recovering, entirely composed again.

Meanwhile, clicking my tongue and realizing the pissing match was over, I sat back down casually.

"As they should be. If word got out about a leader's Ability, someone with a counter can easily come along and wipe you out, taking your leadership from you. That's why only my internal Staff knows what I am, and each one of them is sworn to secrecy; if they speak of another's ability, there is a very strict punishment."

"Each of them has a curse placed on them that if they speak to anyone outside of the inner circle, it will activate and kill them instantly," Balto stated with a sneer, making me raise an eyebrow quizzically.

However, although I was curious about their command structure, Kris was clearly bored and sighed loudly.

"Now that the pissing contest is over, can we please return to business, Fairaday? Please continue where you left off." The slight edge in Kris's tone was enough for me to realize she was already uncomfortable in the present situation and wanted to get the backstory finished.

Jimmy crossed his arms and leaned forward attentively. "Yes, Commander Fairaday, please continue."

Holding my hands up in defeat, I crossed my left leg over my right before mimicking Kris's body posture to a T since I was clearly outnumbered.

"You wanted to know precisely what forced Chase and me apart. As I stated, it wasn't exactly a single event but a chain of events. The incident with Tristan put the seedling of hatred into his mind."

"Be it rage or jealousy, that was the first domino to fall. Above and foremost, Chase was jealous that I had been able to do what he was too scared of. He has never acknowledged this fact to this day, but I knew he was and most likely still is."

---

--10 years Earlier, Late 2015--

---

:: The steady beeping of the heart rate monitor filled the room; we were in Tristian's hospital room.::

From across the room, I constantly kept checking on the man I viewed as an older brother as he was sitting up and watching TV, and with each glance, I felt my heart shatter further.

"You know they said I could be out of here next week. So I'm not sure why you guys keep coming to visit me; it's not like anything will change. I'm fine, you bunch of worrywarts." Tristian was looking at Chase and me.

Putting down the cards in my hand and turning my upper body, I stuck my tongue out at Tristian while Chase snorted loudly.

"Mom said someone needs to be here, especially since you keep hitting on your nurse," Chase said, not bothering to look up from the game.