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Images that were familiar yet altogether new flickered across his mind’s eye. He watched as a transparent city raised its spires to the sky. Ugly grey buildings were replaced with shining towers, congested roads faded away and the grey-brown sky cleared to a beautiful blue. Its growth was the careful work of decades yet he witnessed it in less than an instant.
The scene changed and his awareness wandered through the halls of a precious palace. Smiling people, some old friends, some people he had yet to meet, passed him. A white haired man argued with a black haired woman before he ended the fight with a passionate kiss. Both were beautiful. Neither was human. A tall, shadowed figure laughed and a pink blur ran into its arms, disappearing within the shadow with a trill of happy laughter. An ethereal being of silver light joined the shadow and two faces started to form.
Before him the image changed. Instead of joyful activity there was only a patient silence. The stillness would have been oppressive if it weren’t for the immense sense of love that surrounded him. Before him, encased in clearest crystal, lay a woman in a deep trance. Her beauty overwhelmed him and he could not comprehend any individual feature bar one; the golden insignia of the crescent moon on her forehead.
The world faded into nothingness around him and he finally managed to awaken from the stupor he’d fallen into since the bizarre succession of visions had begun. Everything was dark and he peered around in vain, totally lost and completely alone. The limbo he was trapped in was so empty that he noticed the silver spark the instant it appeared. For an endless moment it hung there and then, between one breath and the next, the spark grew and changed into a person he recognised. Without a thought he grabbed her and her face became horrified before the world disappeared again.
A silver haired woman stood before a small crowd. For a moment he thought it was the same woman who had slept within the crystal but soon he saw there was only the most superficial of resemblances. Apart from physical differences, the woman he now saw was, not colder exactly but more distant. Although this woman was very powerful, even in a trance the first woman had been filled with more life and joy. Another female, one that was little more than a girl, appeared with a boy her own age. Both bowed before the woman and on all three a crescent symbol glittered on their brow. When the girl looked up, an immense sense of recognition overpowered him.
His feeble grasp on reality was lost and his world spun with pictures. A beautiful civilisation was beset by darkness and Fell. A white star witnessed the creation of two silver lights, one with a potential that far outstripped the other, and rejoiced. The silver lights grew and separated, one travelled to a world shadowed by trouble and the second patrolled the space around the world. Ten old souls awoke to battle an ancient evil, four of them joined to claim victory. A trail of light blazed its way to Earth. Two silver strengths met, joined and vanished. Four reborn souls were briefly illuminated by one of the silver strengths. A darkness overwhelmed the souls and the silver strength won them free with the aid of an unknown golden ally. Seven spears of chaos targeted the silver strength. His mind refused any further sights in a desperate bid to protect his sanity. One last impression showed the silver power unite with the gold and grow brighter until it was pure white star then a rich warmth lifted him into infinity.
Darien opened his eyes slowly, expecting to see nothing but light. Instead he found a pair of sapphire blue eyes watching him in concern. Without thinking, he reached up to cup her cheek in a gesture designed to comfort. Instead it resulted in Bunny flinching away from him and falling to the floor. He hid the hurt her reaction caused him by habit and tried to comfort himself with the belief that it did not matter to him what the Meatball Head though of him. It did not work and he found himself angry for no reason he understood. Instead of analysing himself, he sat up and reached to the blonde girl again. She looked at him in alarm and scooted out of his reach.
It was too much and he growled at her. “I’m not going to hurt you Meatball Head.”
“I know that,” she retorted and stood, careful to stay out of reach. “But it’s not me I’m worried about.”
Her answer surprised Darien but it was not something that would deter him. She must have seen it in his expression as she quickly pointed to the palette she had sat on earlier. On it Rini slept fitfully and Bunny edged around him nervously to perch at her side.
“You touched her and went weird on me. I think you were seeing things.”
“I was,” he told her as memory of the first three scenes returned completely along with a jumble of the images that had followed. “I saw the future, and the past and I think maybe some of the present as well.”
“Oh?” her tone of voice startled him out of his distraction and he realised that she had hoped to sidetrack him, instead she had done the opposite.
Like a snake, he reached out and grabbed her wrist. The minute their skin touched a wave of worry and helplessness washed over him. She tried to jerk away but his hold only tightened. The helplessness in his mind began to recede in a growing tide of anger.
He heard her speaking as if from a distance, “Darien let me go.”
“What on Earth?” he asked, his mind still absorbed in the sensation of experiencing emotions which were not his own. A pain lanced through his arm and Bunny pried his fingers off her wrist, one by one. As soon as his hand left her wrist the foreign feelings dissipated and he looked at her in stunned amazement.
Bunny sighed firmly and pushed him down next to the child. For an instant the strange symphony of emotion returned only to vanish a second later. She crouched down and met his eyes. Her voice sounded deadly serious when she said, “Darien, for the sake of your sanity, you must not touch me... and maybe for mine as well.”
“That was telepathy,” he insisted, “When we touched, our minds did as well-” She shook her head at him and frowned. Seeing her negative expression, he couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t admit what she had to know was the truth. Then again, she might know more than it appeared. Her earlier warning certainly suggested it but her expression was too ambiguous for him to be sure. He ignored her caution and reached for her once more to recreate the link that had formed between them.
Frustration, worry, regret, determination, wistfulness, a desire to be honest and a fear for and of him touched his mind before she batted his hands away. Darien took a calming breath and considered her objectively. Bunny’s, now, emotionless face belied the tangle of emotions within her but despite his knowledge of her state of mind her exterior facade gave him pause. She wore the expression of someone much older than a fourteen-year-old girl but he had the impression that what he saw now was as much truth as her young innocent persona. He was tired and the shock of his mind connecting with hers had made him giddy. He had handled it completely wrong.
He sat back and stopped harassing her, aware that she needed to decide how she would deal with the situation. He would follow her lead but that did not mean he would do so blindly. He trusted her but he would make his own judgments.
He looked at her calmly and instead of demanding he asked quietly, “Please tell me what’s going on.” Her face remained blank but her blue eyes were like an open book to him and in them he read indecision. He tried to reassure her and said earnestly, “I know you have secrets Meatball Head, and I’m sure you believe that you have a good reason for them, but this affects me as well and I have the right to know.” Darien paused and tired to find the words he needed to tip the balance. Eventually he just looked at her honestly and shrugged. “No matter what happens, it’s between me and you, that’s all.” He watched as expediency warred with stubbornness and won.
She looked down at her clenched hands. “Have you ever heard of tactile telepathy?” she asked him in resignation.
Her query surprised him but he immediately understood the relevance of it. A part of him wanted to start firing questions of his own but he didn’t push her, knowing that it would break the fragile balance between them. Mildly, he answered, “Yes.”
She nodded and stood. She paced uneasily for a moment and he waited patiently for her to continue. She stopped and met his eyes. “Obviously it means telepathy through touch, where physical contact between two entities promotes the mental affinity between their psyches. I’m sure you’ve realised that that’s what happens between us.” He nodded and she continued, “Do you have any idea of how telepathy, any kind of telepathy works in this reality?”
Darien had a fair idea but wanted to know her thoughts on it. “No, not really.”
She pursed her lips and jerked herself down into a crouch so she was at eye level with him. “Fair enough,” she told him, “It’s a talent like any other, you can learn it but usually one is born with it. On the other hand, whether or not you have the raw ability, the capability depends on how much magic you have. To be an active telepath you have to be at least a beta level mage-”
“Wait,” he interrupted, “Beta level? I don’t-”
She hit her head. “Sorry. It’s a way my people used to have of ranking mages by their active power. I translate it into the greek alphabet, alpha being the strongest, then beta and so on down. You are almost a beta level and, from what I’ve seen, you’re probably going to reach that level within the next few years. It might please you to know that you have a lot of latent power, some of which is surfacing.”
“So I’m developing telepathy?” It didn’t feel right to him. He didn’t touch other people unless by accident but if he was at the very least he should have been catching snatches of people’s thoughts in crowds.
“No. As I said, a telepath has to be at least a beta level.”
“Then it’s you.” He was sure of his reasoning but he was still curious.
She stood abruptly and walked to the opposite wall before she turned to face him again. She obviously didn’t want to say anymore but felt she had no choice. Darien felt slightly guilty for pressuring her but not enough to let her off the hook.
“I am an active telepath,” she eventually admitted, “But before you say anything I want you to understand that I don’t just dip in and out of people’s heads on a whim. It’s not a power I take lightly and normally I shield against even inadvertently hearing what someone is thinking.”
Darien was surprised to realise that he hadn’t even thought of her violating his mental privacy and even more so when, after a moment’s reflection, he would not resent her even if she had. She meant what she said about respecting the rights of others and if Bunny had used her power Darien believed that she would only do so with good reason. It was a strange understanding for a man who guarded his privacy as fiercely as Darien did his own but then the situation was strange.
“Okay,” he prompted when she didn’t go on, “What went wrong between us?”
“It’s hard to explain.” She stopped and rubbed her eyes unhappily. “You see for an active telepath to join minds with a non-telepath requires the telepath to use tactile telepathy. And you have to admit that, for one reason or another, we’ve been in contact a lot since I got here.”
For a moment Darien thought back to the moment she had collided with him on the bridge barely a week before and catalogued every touch up until a half an hour ago when she had ended up in his arms, licking his fingers. Whether they were in battle or not, it was as though the universe conspired to force them together.
He saw Bunny watch him come to the same conclusion. “So every time we’ve bumped into one another, you’ve felt what I’m feeling and thinking?”
She shook her head. “It’s more complicated than that. I admit that, a couple of times, I’ve monitored your emotions but that’s something I can pick up with the general atmosphere. There’s no real invasion there because I’m not going into your mind. It’s no different to reading the expression on your face.”
“But...” he trailed off and watched her expression.
“But,” she said reluctantly, “When we were smashed together on Rubius’ ship our minds got caught together in a feedback loop. I remember very little and you don’t remember anything but... we both know you get protective of me. I know you do even if I don’t know why. That irrational protectiveness was over-stimulated by Rubius for some reason. We were touching and the circumstances were such that my shields were lowered and we linked. Then the channel started to go both ways and the pain and fear I was feeling went back to you and you went berserk. I felt it happen, my power roused in response and raised yours in turn. I don’t remember anything after that, the next I knew was you trying to wake me up.” Suddenly her face became disgusted as she spat out, “That’s three times this week that I’ve fainted! Three times! I’m-”
She was trying to distract him and he wouldn’t let her. “Meatball Head,” she quietened and glanced at him nervously. “Finish what you were telling me.”
She halted her rant, sighed and slipped down the wall until she was sitting. “The feedback loop between us sensitised your mind to mine,” she explained tiredly and every time we’ve touched since then you’ve unconsciously seized the chance to use the touch to reach my thoughts, even when I’m shielded.” She looked at him helplessly. “It doesn’t matter how strong my mental walls are, whenever we’re together I find myself needing to rebuild them. It’s getting so that we don’t even have to be touching for your thoughts to start leaking into mine and now it’s going two ways! We need to keep distance between us otherwise you could end up going mad, your mind isn’t made for sharing in this way.”
Then why did it feel so natural for him? It was almost like a drug, the power to glance into her thoughts with only a touch was more than attractive. It was addictive, even the knowledge that she would see as much of him as he of her did not make the idea abhorrent. The opportunity to know absolutely that there was one person who could never lie to him was a very powerful lure but then he realised that she might not feel the same as he did. She had lived with the talent all of her life and, by her own admission, stifled it unless it was unavoidable. Maybe it was to preserve her own privacy that she warned him away. Andrew’s caution surfaced in his thoughts and he wondered if his friend knew about this.
Darien shook his head. None of that mattered to him. That he could read Bunny’s thoughts was only because of an accident, not because she was his soulmate or any other nonsense. Up until two days ago he couldn’t even stand her. They were allies and she’d just revealed an ability that might be very useful to them. No more, no less.
“Is there anyway we can use your telepathy in battle?” he asked, all business, “An untraceable system of communications would be a great advantage.”
She shook her head and became professional in turn. “No, as I said touch is required between non-telepaths unless I’m very familiar with them. It takes years to get the trust and friendship we’d need for that kind of closeness and I’m not willing to do it the other way.”
“Why not?” he demanded, “If it can help-”
She interrupted him swiftly and sharply, “Well personally my sexual preferences don’t include the scouts and even if I wanted to sleep with you I wouldn’t. Our problem is getting away from each other, we do not need to get closer. Besides,” she added after a brief pause, “Sex is a very serious thing for me-”
“Sex?” he blurted in shock. Bunny was only fourteen and yet she was talking about it in relation to herself with more composure than most adults he knew. He had never even considered her in that way and he was uncomfortable to realise that he wasn’t disgusted by the thought. She was fourteen!
“Of course!” she replied easily, “What did you think I was talking ab... You didn’t think!” He flushed under her gaze and his face became even hotter when she started to grin. “Why Darien, don’t tell me you’re a prude!” She started to laugh. “I can just see it; you’re modestly holding a white sheet around yourself while a lean, mean college babe is trying to rip it off and have her way with you! Or blushing bashfully when a super model says what a hot butt you’ve got! Speaker forbid that anyone be so improper as to tell a raunchy joke in your hearing!”
Darien quashed the sudden urge to demonstrate, effectively and conclusively, just how improper or raunchy he could be in the right circumstances. He berated himself mentally, she was a child, even if her laughter was that of a woman with some delightfully wicked thoughts. It was definitely time to get back to business... and perhaps a change of subject was in order as well, it looked as if telepathy was impractical anyway.
“All right Meatball Head, if you’ve finished laughing at my expense-”
“No.”
“Gods, you’re worse than Andrew!”
She grinned at him as she tried to settle down. “He has the right idea. You need a girlfriend to help loosen you up-”
“Enough Meatball Head!” he growled and she winked at him, unrepentant. “We have limited time, remember?”
“We still have to wait for the others before we can start planning,” she responded but sobered up anyway.
“That gives us some time to talk about Rini,” he told her, “Specifically the visions I have when I touch her.”
“Oh?” Her voice was curious but the way she held herself told him that she was listening alertly and he had the impression that she was ready to leap to Rini’s defence. He remembered that she’d been holding the girl’s hand when he’d questioned her. It hadn’t meant anything before but in the light of their recent conversation and experiences it held a lot of significance.
“I assume you saw what I did.”
“I wasn’t touching you,” she replied cautiously.
“No but you were Rini and she passed it along.
“You’re so sure.”
“Yes.” He was positive. Just as he was positive that she would understand the visions better than Raye ever could. “You saw.” He took her silence as a confession. “I saw three different things before I was in a black place where you appeared. I touched you and then I was bombarded with new ones. I’ve seen the first three before when I’ve touched Rini, just never so detailed. After that it was all new. Do you have any idea what it means?”
Bunny sighed and ran her fingers through her fringe. “All right, we still have some time,” she said in capitulation, “The first three scenes were of the future. I have no idea when but definitely the future. The first was self-explanatory, you saw the construction of a city that will be important in years to come. Maybe it’s where you’ll one day live. The second vision isn’t so easy. It shows beings that aren’t human living with humans. That tells us that there will come a time when a flying saucer or something will come with peaceful intentions.”
“That’s reassuring,” he muttered.
She ignored him and continued. “I only saw what you did and you were so awed by the beauty of the woman in the third vision that you didn’t see what she actually looked like.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Anyway, the crystal struck me as a shield like she needed protecting from something but what I felt from her gave me the impression that she was very powerful. I would infer that she’s doing something very big and dangerous but also very important. She can’t spare the energy to protect herself, thus the shield, but it has to be done.”
“Makes sense,” he agreed.
“The next part was you losing yourself in the vision and me stupidly trying to pull you out of it.” She frowned at him. She must have seen his look of total bafflement because she elaborated. “I deliberately went into your mind to pull you out of the vision and instead of coming out you switched your focus from Rini to me and triggered the next set of pictures.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh!” she snapped and frowned at him. “Okay, I only saw the first of the next lot. You totally lost control after that and I removed myself as a factor and let you come out of it on your own. What I did see was the past, my past to be precise. You saw my mother and my twin brother with me centuries ago.”
For a moment he was silent. He almost felt as if he had stolen something sacred but he didn’t believe she was angry with him. Instead he got the impression that it made her respect him more and he restrained himself from attempting to touch her to find out. Another thought crossed his mind and he hid his excitement before he looked at her again. “You all had tattoos on your foreheads,” he said with only a touch of curiosity, “Do you think it has anything to do with the woman in the crystal?”
She bit her lip and Darien knew that he was on to something important. “The crescent is a symbol of Selene,” she answered slowly, obviously picking her words carefully. “She was my family’s patron goddess and the... tattoos were to show that.”
The symbols weren’t tattoos then, mage marks perhaps.
“We weren’t the only ones so marked. Maybe the woman you saw serves Selene also.”
Or maybe it was Bunny in the future, but he didn’t speak that thought.
“So what did you see after I left?” Her voice was very casual but he caught her keen interest, so she didn’t know what he saw next.
“Nothing much,” he answered vaguely, “I think I saw Beryl attacking-”
“Past.”
He nodded. “And two silver lights appear watched by a white star.” She frowned but remained silent. “I saw ten people being reborn, myself and the scouts being five of them I think. I saw one of the silver lights joining us and a gold light appearing to help the silver save us.” Her eyebrows rose in shock. “Do you have anything to say about it?” he asked and she shook her head numbly. “What if I told you that I then saw the silver light attacked by seven spears of chaos? Or that the gold light will meet the silver light again? Or that the silver light will become a white star? Do you have anything to say now?”
Bunny’s eyes were wide and a myriad of emotions were displayed in them. Fear, horror and understanding chief amongst them. Darien rose to his feet easily and stalked over to her. He crouched down in front of her and placed a hand, against the wall, on either side of her head. He leaned so closed that he could feel the warmth of her skin but there was an infinitesimal space between their skin and his breath blew into her ear as he whispered. “I know you’re not one of the ten souls I saw reborn, I know you’re more powerful than the other silver light that is, even now, on Earth as well.” Her breath hissed out in a gasp of shock but he carried on. “And I know that I can trust you to help me save my planet.” He pulled back so that she could read the truth in his eyes. “I also know that you helped Rini lie to me and that you are keeping a lot of things from me... and the scouts.” He almost forgot about the girls who fought beside him. “I don’t know who you are, Bunny Tsukino, but trust me when I say I will find out. It might take awhile but I will learn the truth.”
She stared at him in total shock but he saw no confusion in her gaze and that confirmed his suspicions. She knew exactly what he was talking about and everything he said had been true. He started to pull away, remembered something else she’d said to him and was seized with a sudden, wild impulse.
“One last thing Meatball Head...” Before she knew what he was about, Darien leaned forward and pressed his mouth to Bunny’s, hard. He forced her lips apart as her dumbfounded amazement echoed in his head. He leaned his weight onto his left hand and his right quickly found its way under her shirt and into her bra. He broke off the kiss and grinned at her gaping face.
His voice low and intimate, he whispered, “I am in no way a prude!” With that he tweaked her nipple and pulled away before her rising indignation found its way into action.
He swaggered to the door of the room, savouring the fury that had followed his taunt. She was right when she said that each time they touched the link between them grew stronger but it had been worth it. For the first time it had been him in control and he had enjoyed every moment. It was only when he reached the door that he allowed himself to turn back for a final glimpse of her reaction. She was crouching, one arm pulled the hem of her shirt down while the other pressed the collar closer to her chest. Her cheeks were red, whether from embarrassment or anger he couldn’t be sure but he fancied it was both. Her eyes were hard as flint and he was glad that he wasn’t within her reach at that moment.
“Better get some rest Meatball Head,” he told her and smiled cockily. She ground her teeth and his smile widened. “I’ll send someone to wake you when you’re needed,” he informed her and shut the door in time to avoid a thrown shoe.
He whistled cheerfully as he made his way back to the scouts. He would never be able to do anything like that again now that she was wary of him. She would probably never let him get within five metres of her but it had been fun. It had been glorious to finally get some of his own back and he had to admit it had relieved his tension level drastically. In fact he had finally realised just how much fun their arguments could have been if he had gone into them with the right frame of mind. Their truce was probably history by now but Darien didn’t give a damn. He decided that he’d take a leaf out of Bunny’s book. He was going to annoy her until she gave him what he wanted... and then, well then he would see.
***
He was grinning at her smugly and she felt a very strong desire to wipe the smile of his face forcefully. Instead she restrained herself and moved forward in two quick steps. She rubbed her naked body against his and lightly nipped at his shoulder. His hands came around to encircle her and she slipped between them with ease. With a light-hearted giggle she danced away. That would teach him to mess with her!
He followed her stubbornly and she spread her wings and, with a little skip, took to the air. She felt him staring after her but ignored it as she wheeled in Jupiter’s storms. A bolt of lightning struck her outreached hand and with a thought she conducted it through her skin to emerge from her wingtips in a scatter of sparks. A storm dance was her favourite form of exercise on the giant world and if it teased her lover to see her daring the violent clouds, so much the better. Still, she missed his warmth at her side and his strong presence. Abruptly she realised how lonely she was without him, how she only felt whole with him near her.
A soothing gentleness eased away her distress even as it formed and she felt the mind of her dark haired paramour lightly touching her own. Lightning flashed around her and thunder resounded but she danced in perfect harmony with the tempest. His essence was there with her and, even as his mind had reached out to hers, his soul touched her own and-
***
“Bunny, wake up,” Mina said insistently as she shook the blonde’s shoulder. Bunny opened her eyes with a start and, in a movement that slightly shocked Mina, rolled to her feet in a split second. “Wow,” Mina said in admiration, “You’re fast!”
Bunny blinked the residue of sleep out of her eyes. “Is it time?”
Mina nodded. “Amy and Raye found a way for us to get there and we have a good idea of what to expect. Something to do with exocytosis, Amy said... who knows. We’ve got a vague plan of action but Darien ordered us to leave you to sleep.”
At the reminder of the man she was still angry at Bunny scowled until she caught herself. Once she realised she was sulking she was able to stop it and she even saw the funny side of her reaction. Of course his actions demanded some kind of vengeance, after all she had never presumed so much on him when she was deliberately provoking him but she wouldn’t kill him... at least not yet.
She followed after the scout leader in a more cheerful mood, already pondering the next step in the game she and Darien played. It was going to be a lot more fun now that he was aware that he was playing.