He wondered yet again, why the hell he had agreed to this.

"You'll have to do better than that, your Grace," said Kingston in a slight mocking tone, almost as if replying to the silent question. "If these were real attacks, you'd have lost the use of that arm... and the other one... and your left foot, knee, thigh, abdome-"

"Yes, I get the point, Kingston," snapped Alex.

"Yes, that's the problem. You're getting it too often," replied the tech. "A few more hits and we can officially qualify this exercise as 'shock therapy.'"

The same day he had discovered that Maurice had assumed the "running of the household," as the butler put it, Alex had also discovered that Xavier Kingston had been hired to upgrade both the building security and the training facility. The upgrades, while nothing remotely approaching those of "professional" metahuman training facilities, consisted of a good deal more than an extra set of parallel bars.

Today's "exercise," as Kingston called it, consisted of dodging low powered stun bolts as he made his way across the floor. It didn't help that he was a little distracted.

A couple of weeks ago Alex had returned to the States. Sarah had returned a couple of days earlier and had gone on to Los Angeles to start work on the movie that she was starring in with Blur. Ever since they had returned to the States, Sarah and he had kept in constant contact. Sometimes speaking to each other two or three times a day. Up until a week ago, that is.

For the last week, Alex had heard nothing from her. Even leaving messages for her everywhere he could think to leave them had yielded no results. He was half tempted to hop a flight out to Hollywood to see her.

"What is that playing on the sound system?" he asked Kingston. "If you're going to tell me it's music, I'll tell you now - it barely qualifies."

Kingston shrugged and said, " 'dunno. I found it in the bargain bin at this used record place on 72nd and Broadway."

"Well, put something else on before my ears start bleeding..."

Kingston chuckled and started another CD playing.

He could clearly see all of the stun bolt projectors. Unfortunately, he had no idea which would fire first or in what order. To top it off, he had to touch a number of pressure plates in order to deactivate the projectors, each with a small light. As the first plate was touched, it's light would go out and the next would turn on to indicate the next goal.

There's got to be a way to do this... he thought. Something like a Song of... Warning. Yes...

Alex concentrated slightly and he could begin to pick out the Strains of the Song he needed to hear. He moved out onto the floor, executing a series of acrobatic moves as the bolt projectors began firing -- and missing. Initially, the margin by which they missed was small, but the gaps increased as Alex moved. Listening to the Song of Warning, Alex managed to easily get through the "obstacle" course, touching the last plate, deactivating the projectors as the last light turned off.

Alex stood up, a smile crossing his face as he realized what he'd done. He felt charged-up, not only from the music but from his accomplishment. Xavier had begun walking across the floor, clapping slowly and nodding in appreciation when Alex heard a major chord sound in the Song of Warning. Instinctively sensing what was to come, he yelled to Kingston, "GET BACK! "

Alex leapt backward, flipping in mid-air as the ceiling exploded overhead followed by a massive impact in the middle of the floor. Landing on his feet, Alex backed away from the small crater. As the dust settled, Alex saw the red and yellow clad form of Tommy Champion - Omega - stand up and turn toward him...

Despite Tommy Champion's reputation as a combat mouthpiece, he thought he knew enough about Maestro's powers to play things cautiously. He surrounded himself with a silence field, charged Alex, and tried to grab him. Alex instinctively dodged, and countered with a leg sweep, catching Omega in the back of his calf with a stiff kick. That was instinct.

Xavier Kingston's instinctive response was to flip a cover and hit a large button on the control panel. The result was interesting but less than spectacular. The projectors began tracking and firing upon the intruder.

Omega barely noticed as he took the shots and shrugged. He shot the tech a backward look, just to acknowledge that he was no threat, but it gave Alex enough time to take a few steps back, out of the silence field.

"Silence," he said, "is as important to music as sound." Without taking his eyes from his opponent, Alex said to Kingston, "you'd better go." As he heard Kingston leave, he said, "I don't suppose you'd like to tell me what this is about..."

Omega said nothing, but closed again. But Alex had figured out the trick, and had attuned his own powers to neutralize the silence sphere. Frustrated, Omega tackled him, and sent them both sprawling on the floor.

"What's the matter?" Tommy snarled. "You don't like being on the bottom, pal?"

"What I don't like," Alex said through clenched teeth, "is having to fight without a damn good reason!"

Maestro knew better than to get into a wrestling match with Omega, though that probably qualified as one of the five most obvious things in the world for anyone whose name wasn't "Avatar". He concentrated on the background noise, became one with it... and he reappeared on the opposite end of the room.

Omega concentrated, and suddenly the CD player began to play: "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me..."

"Beck?" asked Alex, arching an eyebrow. "I'd had you pegged as more of a Kid Rock fan..." The music changed as he spoke and the speakers blared out different lyrics: "I'm a fist of rage, In a broken state, I'm a razor blade slittin' through a wrist of hate... "

"Now... Explain yourself! What is this about?!"

Omega's response was to grin crookedly and vanish. He reappeared behind Alex and slammed a fist into his back even as Alex started to turn. The blow was enough to send Alex flying toward the middle of the room. Alex's body went limp as he went and, for a moment, Omega thought he might have lost consciousness. At the last moment, Alex twisted around and turned the fall into a dive. He rolled out of the dive and regained his feet, spinning around to face Omega once more, he shouted in a voice that seemed much louder than it should have.

"FOR THE LAST TIME -- WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?!! "

"Quite the temper you've got there, British," Omega snapped sarcastically. "You don't like it when you don't get your own way, do you? And I'm not even a woman."

Alex seemed different than he had in England, seemed to have changed even from the moment of Omega's arrival. Omega was sure that last punch would have flattened the Alex he'd met previously. So it's going to take a little longer, he said to himself, trying to forget the stories he'd heard about Alex at the end of the war.

Alex met Tommy's charge with a deft step and a low kick. It was hard for Omega to get his hands on someone with such a low center of gravity, and Tommy knew enough about grappler vs. puncher combat to know that trading blows was sub-optimal. Even so, he couldn't help but enjoy the feel of his knuckles striking Maestro's body. There was a slight smirk on Alex's face that he wanted to remove.

Maestro used the force of the blow to carry him just out of reach of Omega's grasp and rolled to his feet, spinning at the same time to connect with a vicious, lightning charged punch that sent Omega careening toward the wall. Before he slammed into it, Omega teleported behind Maestro and used the momentum to slam into the Englishman, getting a partial hold with one arm in the process.

"You came with a song in your heart and a spring in your step..." Omega taunted, trying to ignore the effect of a head-butt. Alex swallowed his retort, sighed and rolled with a punch that would have punched a hole through tank armor, then caught him with an acrobatic crescent kick to the face that barely slowed down the big Nebraskan. Omega spun in the direction of the blow, attempted to maneuver himself into position for a waist-lock, but Alex delivered a quick elbow to the bridge of his nose and added his own spin to get into position to deliver a solid thrust kick, which connected with... air.

The Song of Warning sounded in his ears, but too late for Maestro to react. Omega teleported behind Alex again, this time encircling his neck with his arm and grabbing Alex's right arm in a hammerlock. Alex was much stronger than he'd looked, but Omega's reputation as a powerhouse was well-deserved. As Alex tried to break free, Omega yanked on the arm, waiting to hear it crack.

Go ahead and struggle. He told him telepathically. I want an excuse. There was also a trailing as Tommy wondered where the music centers of the human brain were located, and wondering whether a telepath could have gotten into them to manipulate Alex.

Alex stopped struggling but he didn't relax. Telepathically, he answered the trailing thought, the mental voice sounding -- big. That might once have been possible. Not any more. As for an excuse -- have you ever needed an excuse to pick a fight? And why this one? Is it 'Hate A Foreign National' Day again? I didn't have it marked on my calendar.

No. It's 'Find Out Whether The Foreign National Raped A Close Friend and Kick His Fucking Ass If He Did' Day. Tommy answered.

"WHAT?!"

The wave of sound that followed, the crescendo that was the last note of an orchestral performance, shot through Tommy Champion's body with the ease of a barrage of neutrinos passing through a planet. It did more than break the hold. It stripped him off Alex's body like a strongman separating Velcro and sent him, grimace-faced, flying through the air, through the ceiling, and several hundred meters into the air.

Tommy shook off the effects of the blast and wondered if that was Maestro at his full current strength or whether he was holding anything back. Though he realized he was in danger of overanalyzing this fight, he wondered what Maestro's next move would be.

Omega charged back into the training room, and spotted Alex with his hands out and to his sides. "Let's try this again," said Alex, clearly making an effort to remain calm. "How could anyone think I'd have done something like that? And what lunatic would make such an accusation?"

"Sarah. She told me what you did to her," Omega answered.

"Are you out of your mind?" Alex asked, obviously trying to keep his temper under control.

"That's always a possibility in this business," Tommy answered. "Along with mind control, illusions, shape-changing... there are lots of ways to mind-fuck us. But you seem to have gone through a rather interesting change since the last time we met."

"True. Perhaps a more profound one than you might imagine. But that change did not extend to transforming me into the worst sort of sexual predator. Or anything else that would leave you no choice but to attack me in my home without trying to offer even the slightest explanation."

"If Sarah had told you that I had done that to her..." Omega left the sentence unfinished.

"... I might have reacted the same way. Perhaps worse. But don't try turning this around on me, not after what you've said." Alex replied. "I didn't do it - and you know it."

Tommy paused for a second to judge Alex's reaction, reading vocal tone and body language. "I don't think you're lying," he finally said. "It's really hard to bullshit me. But I also didn't get the lying vibe from Sarah, and I know her well enough to... well, she believes what she told me."

"Are you sure it was even her?" Alex asked, arms folded. Omega nodded.

"Pretty sure. My senses are mystical. If an imposter was involving me in a dangerous situation, I'm pretty sure I'd know. And assuming that you're both who you say you are, and you're both telling me what you believe, then one of you has been mind-fucked."

"Perhaps it was you."

"Another possibility."

"And you're protected from mental influences?" Alex asked. "Perhaps you made it easy for the telepath. Perhaps you wanted to hear that I had done it to her, and you bought it hook, line, and sinker, just so you could avenge now and apologize later."

"It is possible, but my mental barriers are very tough, and when anyone's trying to manipulate me, I can almost always sense it and augment them with magic." Tommy said. The Chosen was designed not to be someone's telepathic toy, he added to himself.

"Then... that just leaves Sarah," said Alex. Several emotions ran quickly across the young Englishman's face -- concern, confusion, then anger. From the way his eyes flashed, it could almost have been rage.

"I only know of two people," the word seemed to leave a bad taste in his mouth, "who could do something like this - Brainchild and Harbinger. If one or both of them are responsible, they will regret the day their parents ever met."

The way Alex said it caused Omega to experience an involuntary shiver, though he agreed with it whole-heartedly. "Harbinger is doubtful," he said, remembering how he turned on the Elite. "There's always the Priest." Or Orchid, he added to himself, though he didn't say that name out loud. "And Glory did mention some new telepath, a woman named Mindshadow, though I'd hate to think of a woman who'd put another woman through that nightmarish shit."

"Do you know where Sarah is now? Between the two of us, we should be able to counteract what has been done to her memories."

"Yeah, I know where she is." Omega answered. "When did you last talk with her? Was she acting strange?"

"We'd spoken to each other nearly every day since she went to Los Angeles to work on that movie", replied Alex. "But I haven't heard from her for nearly a week. Do you know where she's been or what she's been doing?"

"We met when she first came into town," Tommy answered, a little reluctant to get into specifics. "She was acting a little odd... I figured the two of you probably had a spat or something. But nothing to suggest something nasty had happened to her."

"Give me a few minutes. I need to leave a couple of notes for Xavier and Maurice," said Alex. Looking about his exercise room, he added. "I should also clean up a bit before Maurice sees the mess."

"I can take care of that."

"No. Thank you. I'll do it. There are a few acoustical details that need to be addressed as well..." Alex looked around the large room and music unlike anything Omega had heard before began to emanate from Alex. Almost immediately, he could see thousands of tiny motes of light begin to form, then run playfully around the damaged sections of the room and building. Moments later, there was no evidence of the confrontation that had occurred minutes before.

Alex looked down and noted his bare, diamond "tattooed" chest and torn sweats. "I should also change into something more appropriate. You're welcome to wait here or you can come in and look around."

"Sure. Thanks."

Alex turned and headed through a set of double doors. As the Brit left the room, Omega noted that the pale diamond shape on Alex's chest was mirrored on his back. "Now what the hell is that?" he asked himself rhetorically. He had the funny feeling it was more than just body art.

The music on the sound system permeated the flat. Tommy wasn't in the mood for exploration, he just sat back on a cream plush sofa and relaxed. But even from where he sat, there was a good deal to see -- the place was huge. Sweeping his eyes across the room, he saw a well-appointed recording studio, an open kitchen and a large dining room table. There were also a couple of other closed doors.

... they probably open onto a wine cellar or something...

A section of the wall near Tommy opened and Alex came back into the room. He had changed out of his sweat pants. Instead of the costume he had worn the last time Omega had seen him, he was dressed more conservatively - slacks, a polo shirt, and dress shoes. If anything, he seemed to look slightly taller now, almost larger than life.

The way he carried himself also seemed to have changed. He seemed far more confident - but more aloof. As if a part of Alex had somehow been covered up or set aside. Whatever happened to Sarah, she wasn't kidding about the changes.

"If you will picture the area, I will transport us there now. The damage to Sarah should be corrected before it becomes permanent." Even Alex's voice was different. The sound was the same, but it seemed to lack the - human quality it had contained even when they were fighting.

Once more, Omega heard an almost unearthly set of chords and the world seemed to shimmer. Almost immediately, the scene resolved itself into vintage California, the edge of a bluff overlooking the ocean, at the edge of PCH.

Tommy immediately went airborne to scour the area and heightened his senses. His eyes followed the highway, but it was his nostrils that picked up the clue, the smell of spilt gasoline and a lingering char. He followed it for a half-kilometer, to where a bend in the highway was marked by a twisted, torn railing, and the burnt out wreck of a Porsche at the bottom of a ravine.

"Alex!"

Alex was at Omega's side before the first echo sounded. Alex spotted the wreckage of the car and experienced a brief flashback. The mangled remains of the car was remarkably similar to his father's car after the accident. An unintelligible noise escaped his throat as he sped toward the bottom of the ravine.

The two were at the wreckage almost instantly, looking for signs of life and hoping that Sarah wouldn't be there. A quick search revealed that Sarah was not in the vehicle. Omega looked around quickly, examining the wreckage and the ground around it. He found the driver's side door a hundred yards away.

"It looks like she knocked the door off the hinges when she got out," he said to Alex. "Wish I could tell where she went. I'll start a search pattern overhead and you can --"

He stopped when he saw that Alex didn't appear to be listening.

"Hey, Music Boy! Are you taking notes? I'm not in the mood to start repeating myself!"

Alex merely cocked his head to one side and said, "She climbed back up the ravine... we should find her near the road, walking toward Los Angeles."

"How the hell do you know that? Are you a hunter as well as --"

"No. Just listening to the wind." Before Omega could call a penalty for excessive bullshit, Alex asked, "Were there any skid marks at the top of the bluff? Any sign at all that she tried to stop?"

Omega frowned as he replayed the fly-by in his mind. "I don't remember seeing any. You think she drove off the edge on purpose?"

"It is a very real possibility in light of what has happened. We'll need to approach her carefully. Avatar might have been at a disadvantage but even so, beating him into unconsciousness could not have been an easy task..."

Almost simultaneously, the two young men left the ground and began to follow the road toward the city. Several miles along, they found Sarah. Even from a distance, they could see that her clothes were torn. From the way she was weaving, almost stumbling, she didn't seem to be in good shape.

"It might not be advisable for the both of us to approach her," said Alex. "How would you like to proceed?"

"You're right - let me talk to her," Tommy said over his shoulder, already accelerating towards the girl. "I'll signal for you."

******

The curve had come up sharply, and Sarah didn't know if her plunging over it purposefully was just another mind game, or perhaps her attempt to free herself from them. She hadn't been badly injured in the crash, of course, but it had hurt plenty when the convertible landed on its roof at the bottom of the ravine, over a ton of steel landing straight on the young woman. She'd been able to free herself from the burning wreck before it exploded, but she was still a mess. Her hair was matted with blood, she wore only one shoe, and her outfit had been ruined, badly torn and singed.

"Sarah," a voice came from above and behind her. It was soft and familiar. Tommy's.

The disoriented young meta stopped and turned just in time to see Omega land at her side. Her blue eyes met his, and something flashed there.

"Sarah," Champion repeated, gently. "You're hurt. We need to get you to a hospital. Will you let me fly you there?" The man didn't like the look on her face; he certainly wasn't about to throw Alex's name into the mix just yet. As much as the girl was a physical wreck, the glint in her eyes belied a much more serious problem.

Sarah bared her teeth. "The hospital? You'd like that, wouldn't you!" she suddenly snarled, drawing back her fist. Tommy half-expected the attack, but its ferocity still surprised him. As all of the girl's knuckles broke against Tommy's super-tough jaw, his head snapped around almost hard enough to break his neck and he sailed like a rocket straight into the cliff face that the road hugged. A phenomenal explosion of dirt and stone marked the impact, and then a terrible rumbling echoed across the land. In just a few seconds, tons of earth and rock piled down the steep mountainside, burying Champion and sweeping Sarah off the road.

******

Certain that Omega would be all right for the moment, Alex headed for Sarah as she was being carried along by the landslide. He arrived just as she was being swept over the edge and, preparing for what would come, he dove.

He caught her around her waist and quickly flew her back to a spot near the shattered mountainside. Just before they reached that destination, she realized what had happened and just who was carrying her.

"NO!" she screamed as she began prying herself loose from his grasp. "Let me go, you bastard! I won't let you do it again!" Twisting around she drew back her arm to strike him with an already bloody fist.

The surface of the mound of earth and rock erupted and Omega emerged from beneath it, shaking the dirt from his head to clear his vision. He heard Sarah screaming at Alex and saw her trying to free herself from his grasp. Omega began rushing toward them but before he'd covered half the distance, he heard Alex's voice.

"Stop Sarah -- Please," Alex's voice had taken on an unearthly quality, sounding much as if he were speaking in a large cavern. His face was impassive but even so, Omega could swear that tears were beginning to form in Alex's eyes.

Sarah ceased her struggling and her face relaxed, looking tired and confused rather than frantic. Tommy reached the pair as Alex landed on the ground, still holding Sarah. Alex did not seem to notice his arrival.

"Alex?" she started, as if she were trying to identify him through some sort of fog. "What-Why did you do that to m--"

"Shh... It wasn't me, Sarah," replied Alex softly. "It never happened. I'd die again before I'd ever do something like that to you. Rest now. You'll feel better soon. I promise." The sound of Alex's voice had almost returned to normal, but it still seemed to carry a strange resonance. Sarah closed her eyes and Alex laid her down on the ground. In a moment, she was breathing deeply and steadily.

******

"I've spoken to the Protectorate," Tommy said, pointing to his forehead to tell Alex it was accomplished through his powers, "and they referred me to Blue Ensign. She'll fly into Los Angeles tomorrow, but she recommends we deal with the trauma immediately. Since I can actually do telepathy - and I suppose you can play "If You Could Read My Mind" and do something similar, she suggests that we pool our talents and gently try to reassure her."

"You're a trained telepath?"

"I got a bit of rudimentary training from someone who's on service to the University of Colorado," Omega explained. "It was pretty basic, like how to go into someone mind and recognize that you're about to give them a cerebral hemorrhage."

"That's useful." Alex replied. Alex concentrated briefly on the stereo system and something soft and low, almost New Age, started playing from it.

Sarah lay back on a three thousand dollar Brentwood sofa, her head on a pillow. While she lay still, the world spinning around her. She was out of consciousness now, if you could call the lack of awareness consciousness.

"Let's do it," Tommy said, and he plunged into Sarah's mind. Alex joined him.

They stripped back the layers of memory, fresh memories lingering - the feel of breaking knuckles as Sarah slammed Tommy into the cliff-side. Sorry, Sarah thought.

I'm an old farmhand, Sarah. Omega smiled. I'm used to a lot worse than dirt.

But the memories didn't stop for commentary. Sarah's car tumbled upwards in a marionette motion, broke the side of the curb, started and stopped. She had a conversation with Tommy Champion; halting, awkward, and wounded she told him.

"He raped me, Tommy. Alex raped me."

Alex's reaction was a tightly reigned torrent of disbelief, heartbreak, and anger. Tommy noted that the anger wasn't directed at Sarah but at the faceless one who had done this to her. Yet despite the strength of that anger, Alex managed to keep it from touching Sarah's fragile mind.

The memories continued to go further. Though they focused on Sarah's, they couldn't help but overlap with other memories - Alex's memories of Avatar's death blow, of a conversation with his father, a brief flash of infinite awareness, power, his struggle to grasp the memory fragments of what had happened, a funeral, a talk with Avatar; Tommy's desperate, almost obsessed search for the origins of the Black Priest, and Dr. Wight's revelation that his family had been engineered by the Black Priest. Interesting stuff, at least for some, and perhaps Sarah found it quietly instructive to understand her friends' recent pain. And the journey continued, through movie shoots and nights alone in the hotel wondering, and....

"T-Tommy," she sobs, "take me home, please..."

It's a week ago, shortly after Sarah's arrival in Los Angeles. She and Tommy have just made love, in mid-air over the city, as wild and passionate as any sex they'd ever had, sex interrupted when she burst into the tears.

Alex did the mental equivalent of a stumble. Again, Tommy could feel the same emotions from Alex, but more intense: renewed disbelief, an even deeper heartache, and anger bordering on rage. Only this time most of the anger was directed his way.

Normally, Tommy wouldn't give a damn how angry someone got at him, but they were in a good position to do serious harm to Sarah. If Alex lost it now, there's no telling what kind of damage would result. There was also something disquieting about Alex that he hadn't figured out yet. He got the feeling that he'd find out what it was eventually and the thought wasn't comforting. Fortunately, with an almost tangible effort, Alex reigned in his emotions before it became an issue...

Delving a little deeper, Tommy and Alex touched that part of Sarah's mind that was... wrong. Unseen images, inaudible sounds and phantom touches assaulted them. Whether they were memories, dreams or hallucinations, neither man could tell - but the jumble of it all was proof enough that Sarah's poor mind was not well. Here was the young, chubby-faced girl skipping on her way to school, her mother's disapproving face in the background; there visions of Sarah striking a young boy in a gymnasium unfolded, again and again, the blow becoming more damaging each time, starting with a slap and ending with the boy's skull exploding under the force of the blow.

Sarah's whole life played out in a series of scenes, the most memorable looming the largest and lingering the longest, the day-to-day tedium fading into the very fabric of the mental tapestry the trio wove. Every one of the girl's memories ran as though on some kind of loop, subtle details changing each time until the final glimpse was of something quite perverted from the original image. A team of surgeons labored long hours over the girl, remaking her into her mother's very picture of perfection; a flash, and that same team worked busily, carving out the girl's heart, her soul. Next, it was not surgeons at all, but rather the three-armed thing Adam, under the watchful eyes of Hack and Orchid, crudely dissecting the screaming meta, placing the bits they felt choicest in a variety of carefully labeled glass jars.

Here was the first time Sarah and Tommy had sex, underneath row upon row of windmills. A split-second later, there was the same scene, but with Hack raging in Tommy's place. Sarah somehow enjoyed it all the more, feverishly kissing the unmasked creature's horribly scarred and ruined face.

Dr. Wight, wicked fangs showing as he smiled, painted sigils on Sarah's back that squirmed and writhed, howling to some demon master Sarah's every move. The hunt for the Orchid and Hack ended that night on the docks not in success, but in dismal failure, with the blood of dozens of innocents seeping into the harbor.

Then there was Alex, fighting alongside Sarah first in the Boom Room against the Matrons of Mayhem, and then at her side on a wintry street in New York City against the Royal Elite. Soon they were making love, moving amidst the blue shadows in Sarah's hotel room in London.

Alex, his own mind reeling from the blitz of twisted memories assailing him, was shocked by the next scene. He saw himself, but he was something more and something less than human. He was raping Sarah, slowly and deliberately, his star-filled body somehow made up of the very cloth of the universe. As Music, he was huge and phenomenally strong; Sarah's cries and efforts to stop him only fueled his fury.

For long minutes the terrible scene played out, and an anguished Alex found himself unable to unlock his eyes from it. Something tugging at him finally broke his fixation.

"Alex," Tommy's mind called out. "Don't watch it, man. It's not real, remember. Come on..."

Turning away, Alex was confronted with another vision of the rape, of himself violating the girl in even more obscene ways. The young Brit faltered, recoiling from the scene. "I didn't..." he began, but couldn't finish.

"Hey! Don't be a fucking idiot, come on!" Tommy snapped, somehow seizing the other man mentally, lifting him away from the dark visions. "Sing your song of whining later." Stay angry, man. Anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the ass-kicking side...he added to himself.

Alex shook his head, clearing the perverse sights from his mind. Anger. Yes. That much I can focus on... Omega was a little surprised that Alex had "heard" the self-directed comment and, for a moment, Omega thought he could see stars in Alex's eyes.

Fine. Tommy said to himself. Get all "2001" on me, English. That was such a fucking boring movie. The reaction, of course, was a cover. Tommy Champion could count on his fingers the number of people who had ever intimidated him, superpowers or not, and it bothered him to no end that the guy who was trying to snag Sarah was one of them.

In the meantime, they traveled. Past creaking windmills, they soared, past the blasted Irish landscape, past the mutant legions and the defeated heroes who'd tried to stand up to the Royal Elite, past an empty movie-set where the director's chair laid in a pool of thick, sticky blood. Tainted, depraved memories flashed by them on all sides, until finally they were left standing, alone, before an enormous, institutional-looking brick building. Sarah, dressed in a revealing, unfamiliar-looking blue and yellow costume, lounged on the front steps.

"You boys can't go in," she said with a playful smile.

"What's the matter? Girl's night?" Tommy asked.

"It's a secret." Sarah's smiled broadened.

"Look!" Alex cried, pointing to a second-floor window where, just a split second before, Sarah's weary and pale face had flashed.

The woman in front of them turned and glanced at the window, then looked back at Alex. "You just hold yer horses, loverboy. She don't want nothin' to do with you anymore."

Tommy, noting the southern accent, asked, "Okay Scarlet O'Hara. Just who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"Me? Ah'm Bombshell." Even her eyes smiled, now. "Toughest little chickie you'd ever care to cross."

Alex's eyes hadn't moved from the window. "We're going in there," he half-growled, a resonant sound building in his chest.

"Well my, my - that's what she's been going on about. I had a hard time believin' that a pantywaist limey like you could have your way with poor Sarah, but it looks like there's more to you than meets the eye..."

It was then that Alex and Tommy noticed for the first time that they had physical manifestations of some kind in the mental space the trio now shared. It was made all-too-clear when Bombshell surged forward and kneed Alex in the groin, hard. As he doubled over, the leggy woman caught Tommy with a roundhouse kick that sent him sprawling.

The woman's eyes had darkened. "You boys move along. Ain't nothin' for you here..."

"Sure. We're going to abandon someone we care about just because you say so and you managed to hit us a couple of times." Omega said sarcastically. "And ooooo, the southern accent's so scary. You planning to ring your southern bell?"

"I warned you." Bombshell smiled.

Tommy stepped to spitting distance of the guardian. "Bullshit. You're not warning us, the person who made you is shaking in their fucking boots that we're gonna go in and trash whatever they turned Sarah's mind into." His smile broadened. "Good call on their part. Except for pissing us off, of course."

Bombshell snarled and took a swing at Omega, who smiled, ducked, got behind her and grabbed her. "Take off her face, Alex!"

"What?!"

"Shit, I can't hold her much longer!" Whatever Bombshell was, she was seriously strong. "And it works in all those movies, so take off her face!"

Alex shrugged, put his fingers to Bombshell's face, and gave a pull. With a shriek, it peeled off, and Alex found himself holding a key.

"That was... unexpected," said Alex, his voice sounding distant, perhaps a little deeper.

"Who needs drugs when you've got psionics?" Omega grinned. "Well, you've got the key to Sarah. Open her up, man."

"You're the expert in psionics." Alex said dryly. "What do you expect to find?"

"Just the obvious." Omega answered. "Repression, guilt, self-doubt. Don't ask me how to beat them. The usual schtick is that we find Sarah's true self and help her combat her own demons. Of course, this ain't the movies, so if it's a smart psionic, they'll realize her friends are gonna do this, so they plant a mind bomb, wait until they've reached the core, then blow 'em all away."

"That's reassuring." Alex quipped. "I don't remember any movie where that happened."

"It wasn't a movie," Tommy countered. "It's what I'd do if I were that level of a psionic and an asshole." He motioned at the door. "You gonna wait all day?"

Alex opened his mouth as if to respond then decided against it. He moved cautiously over to the door, inserted the key and gave it a turn. The door melted away, as though it was plastic exposed to a massive blowtorch.

Maestro and Omega entered the institution to the sound of screams. Tommy followed Maestro, the Song of Warning and his intuition working in perfect, disquieting, harmony. He ignored it, of course. He found himself in the lobby of a hospital. Above the admittance desk there were two counters: "People dying", and "People saved by Omega". The death toll rose rapidly, while the Omega total trickled slowly upward.

"Thanks for saving me!" a man, stepping over a corridor of dying bodies, tearfully shouted. He suddenly pulled a wallet out of Omega's costume, and began filling it with dollar bills.

"What the fuck - ?" Omega questioned, and he bent down to heal the dying. Suddenly the "grateful" man grabbed Tommy by the throat and forced him back to his feet.

"I'm paying you!" he snapped. "Don't ignore me for this pile of trash! Count your bills!"

Omega sheepishly began to count the money (all of which had "Nike dollars" written on them), but then he threw down the wallet in disgust. "Bullshit symbolism!" the hero snapped. The person who was giving him the money began to scream, but Omega grabbed him, threw him down the corridor, then returned to attending the wounded. "Fucking telepaths," he muttered, noticing how much fouler his language had gotten since he entered Knockout's mind and gotten in touch with his subconscious.

"It's a lot easier in here, you know." Rachel said. "In the real world, the moral challenges aren't so obvious." Tommy glanced upward to spot Rachel's dripping, severed head talking to her. It was being held by the hair, by Hack.

"Hi Omega," Hack said.

"How's it going, Hackster?" Omega answered with a smile.

"Good for me, but not for you." Hack answered in his child-like voice. "Superheroes aren't supposed to ignore stuff."

"Don't worry, Melvin." Orchid said, her hand draped around Knockout's waist as they walked together down the corridor. "We'll give him something he can't ignore." And then Orchid and Knockout began to kiss passionately.

"I love you Janey..."

"Oh Sarah, isn't this better than anything he ever offered you..." Knockout laughed as Orchid playfully nibbled on her neck.

Tommy had constructed a careful, callous façade when he entered Sarah's mind, but the sight of Sarah kissing Orchid was enough to shatter it in an instant. Without realizing the irony of his outburst, Omega tackled his former archenemy. His momentum stripped Sarah away from her lover, and sent Tommy and Orchid doing a perfect baseball slide down a corridor of corpses. "Were you actually taking the Musical Ken-doll to task for being jealous?" Orchid laughed. "And you had the nerve to call me a hypocrite?"

"Forgive me for caring about the woman." Omega growled as they continued to slide.

"Tommy..." Orchid smiled. "Asking me for forgiveness? That's almost cute. But perhaps you should seek help from a more... religious... person." And that's when the slide stopped, at the feet of a black robed figure.

"You're pathetic, farmboy." Michael said, kneeling down with the Black Priest's staff in his hand.

"Wait a minute..." Omega said, throwing Orchid aside, knocking into the side of the corridor (where she exploded into a pile of dust and decay like a hurled bouquet of long-dead flowers). "She doesn't know you, Mikey."

"Maybe you mentioned me in passing." Michael said. "Or maybe this isn't her nightmare, it's yours. Or maybe you suddenly realized the truth. What better place for your mortal enemy to hide than in the skin of your best friend? I am the Black Priest, you idiot. Man, I can't believe how many months I played you for a sap."

"This is bullshit!" Omega insisted.

"No, what's out there is bullshit," Michael said. "This is... opportunity. Face it, farmboy, I'm beating you at every turn. I'm toying with every aspect of your life: friends, family, enemies, the works. You're never going to be happy out there, but in here..." His smile broadened, and his teeth glistened. "All you have to do is get rid of British Boy, and you and Sarah can stay here forever."

Omega began to shake his head. "No! This is just psionic bullshit!"

"It's the only chance at happiness I'll ever offer you, Omega." The Michael-Priest snarled. "Take it!"

"Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!" Omega screamed repeatedly.

"Seize the opportunity!" Michael instructed. "Seize it by the throat! Maestro's throat!"

Omega began to slap his own face - break the concentration - and suddenly found himself on the floor, staring up at an image of himself, standing next to the Priest, arms around each other's shoulders. "You supposed to be my dark side or something?" he squinted.

"I wasn't aware you had a light side, Tommy." the other Omega said. "By the way, how come you never raped Sarah like you did Bandita? You only rape brunettes?"

Omega sighed, and tried to concentrate... the enemies were coming too fast, he needed to think. "Man, don't do any of that fucking thinking stuff," the Other-Omega said.

"He needs to confess his sins." The Michael-Priest added. "I'm a collector of sins, so take as much time as you need, Tommy. You have so much to tell me."

"That takes too long. Let's just beat the shit out of him," the Other-Omega said, grabbing Tommy by the shirt scruff and punching him repeatedly in the face.

He couldn't break the grip or fight back. "Sarah..." he rasped through a broken face. "Sarah, help me..." Suddenly the Priest and the false Omega melted, and he found himself in front of a door with locking bolts and chains, a room "117". He realized what had happened. He had always tried to establish some sort of dominance in his relationship with Sarah, he always had to be the strong one. Of course Sarah had subconsciously resented it. Asking for help was a sign of respect from Omega - a rare sign - and so she welcomed him into the inner sanctum.

"Son of a bitch!" Omega smiled. "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good,"

******

He noticed two children, twins, standing in the hall next to two gurneys. They stared at him with an unspoken accusation. He didn't recognize them, but he felt he should have. One of them raised an arm and pointed at a door down the hall. He glanced at the sign above the door that he was approaching. It read 'Morgue.'

Taking a moment to steel himself, he pushed open the door. He had never visited a morgue before but he was certain such a place couldn't have been this... large. There were rows upon rows of tables as far as the eye could see. Each contained a body covered with a dingy, gray sheet. There was something about it that seemed to be familiar, but he couldn't quite place it, a distant sound, perhaps or maybe the spicy smell of Creole cooking... It felt like New Orleans.

As the thought occurred to him, a small body sat up on the table. It was a boy whose face still stared blankly at Alex in the occasional nightmare. Tommy Wilkinson. One of the first vampires... people he had killed in New Orleans.

"Why didn't you save me?" came a voice, filled with recrimination. "Why did you have to kill me... and my parents."

"I didn't know I could," replied Alex. "And there were so many of you. I tried..." More bodies started to rise.

"Why did you have to kill so many of us," asked more voices in unison, a sort of twisted choir. "Didn't we deserve to be saved?"

"You killed us!"

"...Slaughtered..."

The bodies that had been lying on the slabs had gained their feet and were now moving slowly toward him, reaching out. Some were holding severed limbs, others trailing organs behind them. All staring at him with dead, accusing eyes.

"... were given no chance..."

"... no chance for redemption..."

"... will never know the warmth of the sun..."

The anguish that Alex had felt in New Orleans washed over him anew, even worse since he was now certain that with the power he now had, had possessed all along, he might very well have saved them.

"... the Sun..."

"Son, why did you have to kill me as well?"

The voice was unmistakable. He spun around quickly and came face to face with his father. But it was not his father as he preferred to remember him. It was his father as he'd often seen him in his hospital room - limbs atrophied, tubes running in and out of his body, supplying food and air to keep the body alive.

"But, you showed me what happened. You virtually threw me from the car yourself..."

"You could have saved me, son," said his father mockingly. "With all of the power at your command, all it would have taken was a simple thought and I might still be alive today. It's your fault I'm dead!"

"No!" numbed with disbelief.

"I might have been able to tell you you're wasting your time with that tramp."

"What are you talking about?" said Alex, beginning to grow angry.

"Oh, come on, boy! Do you honestly think that your mother and I would allow this relationship of yours to progress beyond a simple fling? Besides, this 'Omega' chap seems to have moved in on her quite nicely. Maybe you could stand to take a few lessons..."

Alex snapped and did something he would not have believed possible - he struck his father. Hard enough, in fact, to cause the bones in the frail body to snap loudly. Even so, the broken image of his father smiled sardonically and said, "Now is that any way to treat your dear departed father?"

"What ever you are, you are not my father." Replied Alex with a calmness that surprised even him.

"Tell me, how will you answer the accusations of all these poor, innocent people?" replied the broken form as it gestured unnaturally towards the milling dead.

"I won't." Something that had eluded him for so long was now beginning to edge toward the front of his awareness.

"Have you grown so powerful that you don't believe you need to ask their forgiveness?"

"The fact that they died cannot be undone. Even by me," admitted Alex. "But I have learned that all things happen for a reason. Sometimes that reason is known, sometimes not. And I have learned that in order to be saved, one must want to be saved. Without that desire, no effort or rescue, earthly or otherwise, can succeed."

As he put that realization into words, the scene shifted and he found himself standing before the door to the room where he felt - knew Sarah to be. The door was locked with bolts and chains, clearly put there by whomever imprisoned Sarah within her own mind.

Unlike Sarah, or Tommy, Alex had never sought out situations where he might be called upon to use his power to save others. The situations had always found him. Once engaged, he had never backed away from what he felt he must do, but he could never understand why he his successes had so often been mixed with failure. He could never understand why he couldn't always save the day.

He now realized that it was never entirely about him, that his success depended on others as often as himself. That he now stood before this door gave him hope. It indicated that Sarah was allowing him to help her and that meant that she was not beyond help. He grasped the knob in his hand, shattered the locks and chains, and entered the room...

******

"What are you guys doing here?"

Both approached, slowly, wary of yet another psychic attack. "We're here to help, Sarah," Tommy offered as he used his powers to pull the restraints off Sarah and helped her sit up.

Alex nodded. "You're not well, Sarah, and we want to make you better."

Sarah's shoulders sagged. "You can't. I can't even tell what's real and what's not anymore. It's like... it's like I've had all these nightmares, but they're not nightmares. They're real... even though I used to remember things differently."

"They're not real, Sarah. They are nightmares," Tommy said, coming closer. "Someone's fucked with your mind, Sarah."

Alex moved in as well. They were close enough to touch her, now. A bit of dried blood was present at her nose, and a scrape marked the side of the girl's face. "We've got professional help on the way," the Englishman added, thinking of the Blue Ensign. "We'll keep you stabilized and safe until they arrive."

Sarah stood up and walked glassy-eyed over to the window. Outside, all was strangely quiet. The woman stared out over the landscape of her mind as she asked her next question. "Did you rape me, Alex?"

"No," Alex answered softly. "Sarah, you know I could never do such a thing."

Sarah turned around, and her eyes were suddenly wet. "Yeah... I know," she sniffled. "So why can't I convince myself of that?"

Tommy was about to answer (again, because your mind's been fucked! ), but Sarah kept on talking. "It's like when you see something that triggers a memory... a memory you've long forgotten, like of an old relative you only knew as a kid. It's so distant, but somehow so vivid, so sharp."

Alex made the barest of moves to reach out and touch his friend, but when she flinched, he stopped. "Don't," she said softly, moving away from the large windows that overlooked the beach. Sitting back down on Tommy's sofa, she wiped her eyes, tucked her legs up underneath her and accepted the blanket that Tommy wordlessly offered. Pulling it around herself, she added, "I'm really sorry I've dragged you guys into this..."

Alex dropped down in a chair nearby. "Much of what we saw in your mind, Sarah... they aren't memories. They're fabrications. Lies."

Tommy sat on the other end of the sofa, then reached out and patted his guest on the leg. Alex noticed, but said nothing as Tommy spoke. "He's right, Sarah. We beat Hack and Orchid, you and me. Remember? With Doc Wight and a couple of the Canadians?"

Sarah closed her eyes and was silent for a moment. "Maybe," she responded somewhat sadly.

"Oh, good God, man! Just telling her to 'remember' isn't going to work," Alex half-snapped.

"No shit," Tommy fired back. "But it won't hurt to help her sort out the good from the bad. Or do you want her remembering that you-"

"Tommy, Alex, I do not need this right now," Sarah warned, half sitting-up. Settling back down, she continued, "You mentioned professional help. Who's coming?"

"Blue Ensign," Tommy and Alex answered at once, their eyes locking.

"She'll be here tonight," Tommy finished.

Sarah drew a deep breath and pulled the blanket tighter around her. "Thank you," she said after a time. "I... can't exactly sort this all out yet, but I do know that I owe both of you big time." Another moment of silence elapsed, then she softly said, "Jesus... Tommy, I sent you after Alex, didn't I. Are you both alright?"

"No problems on my end." Tommy smiled malevolently. "But those Stan Lee moments rock."

"I can't say I'd want to repeat the experience," said Alex flatly, "but no lasting harm was done."

"I think one of us should get out of here and wait for Blue Ensign," Tommy ignored any trace of invective in Alex's voice. "Not to mention if the telepath's detected our intrusion, he or she may attempt to send a force to go after our bodies while we're physically vulnerable."

"You don't have very many happy thoughts, do you Omega?" Alex said.

"Not when it comes to what our enemies could - and would - do to us." Tommy replied. "Maybe it's because I don't just fight the world's most god awful enemies, I actively make them, but there's a psychology to this business. You need to learn it."

Sarah shot Alex a knowing glance, but said nothing. Tommy continued.

"People noticed what you did in Europe. Autocrat and the Priest are only the tip of the planet's iceberg of assholes. They're gonna to come after you, Ludwig. And you need to be ready for what's coming."

"Perhaps. But if they truly noticed what I did, they might re-consider," replied Alex. Again, Omega had a weird feeling about him, but still couldn't say if it were good or bad.

"If you are correct, there are very few places I could go that I couldn't be found. And pre-emptive strikes are difficult against unknown enemies. The only alternative is to let them come and make them regret their choice."

"Well, it ain't much fun to live in a siege mentality," Tommy noted with what appeared to be genuine sympathy. "Even when you're as naturally paranoid and psychotic as I am. But given what they made Sarah think you did, I'd recommend you be the one to wait for Ensign Blue."

"Are you certain that's wise? If Sarah's true assailant makes an unexpected appearance..." Alex left the sentence unfinished. Though he tried to disguise it, he clearly wasn't happy about leaving Sarah alone with Tommy.

"Tommy makes sense," Sarah stammered. "Don't worry, Alex. Everything will be fine." She eyed Tommy's leg, hoping he wouldn't say anything that would provoke another attempt to placekick it.

Alex's expression softened. "Very well. I'll see if I can contact the Blue Ensign myself and perhaps expedite things." Alex left the house, producing a small CD player from somewhere as he walked. He desperately wanted to leave an "extra set of ears" in the room and, though he now had the ability to do so, he found that he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"So we're all alone..." Tommy smiled, sitting down.

"Tommy, if you're thinking..." Sarah began to caution. Omega chuckled.

"Well, of course I'm thinking that," Tommy leaned back with his hands behind his head "I ain't stupid or a Bobbit. But you wouldn't say yes, so I won't ask, or take. We've both been through enough in the last week."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. I think it sucks." Tommy replied. It was hard not to tell the truth here, especially for someone like Tommy who was not used to holding his tongue. "I don't think much of Mr. Melody, but every time we get together, our vision gets clouded by terminal testosterone levels, so who the hell can judge?" His smile broadened. "It's kinda cool actually."

"Tommy!" Sarah could almost bring herself to laugh.

"But you do love the guy, don't you?" Tommy says, a little sadly. "Somehow, that human baton brings you alive, doesn't he?"

Sarah shrugged. "I don't really know what I think, right now, Tommy. I guess maybe he does."

"Well. I'm sorta sick of getting the short end of the happiness stick." Omega noted ungraciously. "I'm as jealous as hell of him. He doesn't appreciate how lucky he is, not one-tenth of what he should."

"How would you know, Tommy?" Sarah was clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. "You don't know how we relate. He treats me like a person. He looks at me, and he sees another human being. But when you look at me, you think 'great sex'." Tommy gulped visibly.

"That's not fair," he said, knowing it was - the one great problem with telepathic melds is that they could be way too revealing.

"Sure, you also think of me as some grand romantic fixation. And it's nice to be thought of like that - sometimes - but..."

"It's no basis for the R-word." Tommy bitterly completed the sentence, meaning 'relationship'.

"Well... yes," Sarah said. "I'm..."

"Don't say the word 'sorry', Sarah," Tommy sulked. "I don't think I can take it." Sarah looked at him sadly. "That's the problem with chick flicks. You see enough of them, and any meaningful dialogue on relationships turns into a fucking cliché."

"I'm happy to have a friend like you, Tommy." Sarah said, searching for the right words.

"I know," Omega said. "It doesn't help, but I know. And regardless of what happens with you and Alex, I'll be around." Somehow, Tommy managed a smile. "Because until I see a ring on that gorgeous finger of yours, I will continue to be an unrepentant nuisance. Whatever's between us may just be physical attraction, but it's damn powerful, and it's damn good, and we both know it."

Sarah almost smiled. "Maybe," she said somewhat shyly.

"Well, to invoke the gods of cliché yet again, giving up on you would mean dying a little bit inside," Tommy countered. "Screw that. I've got enough death in my life. Regardless of the choices we make, I will always be your Champion."

Tommy hoped the badness of his pun would diffuse the tension, but Sarah just sighed. "Tommy, can we talk about something else?" she asked. "I'm not as comfortable as you are talking about this sort of thing."

"Sorry." Tommy replied. "I was hoping our little soap opera might distract you from what this creep did to you. I don't want you to be afraid."

"Well, I am afraid, and for good reason. Let me be afraid, okay?" Sarah replied.

"Okay. Be afraid. Just don't ask me to stop caring." Tommy snapped.

They sat together for a long time without speaking, within that small fortress of the mind, waiting for their telepathic rescue. For answers to those questions that didn't require two people to untangle their souls so they could articulate the truth. Sometimes, when it came down to the dilemmas of the superhero and everyday living, the superhero had it easy.

******

Dame Elizabeth Sophia Peters, better known to the world as the Blue Ensign and a Lieutenant in the British Military, sounded slightly exasperated but still managed to sound genuinely concerned about Sarah's situation. Her situation was also genuine, but Alex could circumvent that.

"What if you didn't need to worry about the flight?" said Alex. I believe I can arrange to have you here within the hour--"

"Even if it were possible, I still have other obligations to meet before I can leave. I'm sorry, Alex. I will be there as soon as I can."

Alex noted that she had used his first name, but was not bothered by the increased degree of familiarity. He was about to acquiesce when an idea came to him. "May I ask how long it will be before you have finished your other tasks?"

"It will be at least two-and-a-half hours," she said sympathetically. "Call it three. Why do you ask?"

"In three hours time, say my name. I'll bring you to us."

"Say your name?" she asked skeptically.

"Yes. Singing it might be better, but simply saying my name should work."

"... And you will bring me -"

" - to Omega's home. Yes."

After a slight, but noticeable pause, she said, "Very well. Three hours from now. If you'll excuse me, I should get back to work."

"Yes, of course. Thank you for speaking to me. Good bye." They each hung up the phone. From the tone of her voice, Alex could tell that she'd still arrange the flight out. It would be something of a surprise when she discovered he'd been serious.

Alex informed Tommy and Sarah of the Ensign's impending arrival and went back outside, this time heading toward the beach. He stood motionless for quite a while, listening to the rhythmic pounding of the surf. He chose a slow-moving piece of music that played in time with the waves and began to slowly draw power from it. As he did so, he listened for the sound of his name...

******

"- wishful th... Oh!" The Blue Ensign blinked against the light of the setting. It had been well after dark in Britain.

"Thank you for coming, Dame Elizabeth," said Alex with a voice that reflected the qualities of the ocean. "I appreciate how much of an inconvenience this is for you. If you'll come this way..." Alex motioned toward a large home just up the beach.

Reflexively, she reached out to search for Alex's mind and stopped before she made direct contact. For a moment, Elizabeth felt the same feeling of vertigo that she'd experienced the last time she had touched Alex's mind. It passed as quickly as it came and she followed the tall young man to Tommy Champion's home.

Inside, Sarah and Tommy were on the sofa, the girl's head resting in the blonde man's lap. Neither had been sure when they'd completely dropped back into reality, but when it became obvious they had, Sarah had wordlessly pulled her friend onto the sofa and leaned against him, saying nothing as she eventually fell asleep.

Seeing the look on Alex's face, not to mention one of Blue Ensign's raised eyebrows, Tommy didn't smile. "Don't sweat it, Sonata - it's one of those 'we're just friends moments'," he said with some amount of contempt.

Alex said nothing as Elizabeth moved to Sarah's side. Kneeling down, the Ensign brushed hair from the girl's ashen face and ran one of her slim hands gently along her temple. Closing her eyes for a moment, she frowned.

"Someone's... done awful things to her mind," she said after a moment, her eyes still shut.

"Um, yeeeah," Tommy said drolly. "That much we kind of figured out."

Elizabeth's eyes flashed open and she looked from Tommy to Alex and back again. She'd clearly seen something in Sarah's mind. "I think you two have done enough, for the time being. Why don't you give Sarah and I some privacy? This is going to take some time to sort through. Whoever did this... they were not only completely twisted, but highly skilled, as well. I'm not sure I can completely untangle all of Sarah's memories - but I'll certainly try."

"Thank you," Alex said quietly but graciously. Turning to Tommy, he added, "Come on, Omega. Let's leave Lady Peters to her work."

As the pair left, the Blue Ensign settled in beside Sarah and dove into the girl's ruinous memory. "Here we are, Sarah..." she soothed mentally. "Let's see if we can't dispel some of these apparitions..."

******

"I'll bet it's a lot sunnier here than you're used to in England," Tommy finally said. "During the day, of course."

"Uh, of course. But then it's almost sunnier now than I'm used to in England..." Alex replied, pausing for a few seconds. "I like the sound of the waves."

"Me too." Tommy concurred. "Who needs surf music when you've got that sound?"

"Yes... If you listen just right, the way in which the sea foam dissipates on the shore is almost a counterpoint to the rhythm of the crashing waves..."

"Uh, yeah... I can see that, I mean hear that..."

The next few hours continued in a painful silence akin to fingernails on a chalkboard, punctuated by brief attempted conversations that were even more painful. But neither of them dared leave the scene (or use their powers to spy on Sarah and the Ensign), so they just sat and listened to the concert of the waters.

******

The young meta stood upon seeing her friends come back into the beach house. Smiling, she crossed the floor and awkwardly hugged both of them. Behind her powerful shoulders, the two men almost came nose-to-nose, and they did not like it. "Thank you, both of you," she said, releasing them from the hug. "I'm so sorry to have dragged you into this..."

Alex's eyes softened. "Are you-"

"All better?" Tommy finished. "Or are you still..." He punctuated his words with a whistled cuckoo sound.

Sarah laughed, despite the trauma she'd just endured. "I do feel much better," she answered, looking from Tommy to Alex. "For the first time in... days, I guess, I'm not in a fog. I know what's real and what's... not." Her eyes meeting Alex's, she added, "I... know now that... many of the terrible things I was remembering in fact never happened."

Disgruntled by the eye contact Sarah was making with the tall Brit, Tommy breathed an audible sigh of relief, and moved further into his home. "Whew - I thought you weren't going to remember the other night. That'd have been a crime..."

"Tom Champion," Sarah said, catching hold of the man as he tried to brush past her, "No more pissing contests. Not tonight. You both mean too much to me, and there's been more than enough crap hit the fan today." Sarah seemed to be gaining strength and confidence by the moment, and all eyes were on her as she let go of her friend and continued to speak. "I owe the three of you a great deal. I don't yet know who did this to me - but I at least now have a face. I remember when it happened, and that's a start." Holding up a hand to allay the coming questions, she continued, "I don't want or need any more help with this right now - I just need to get my life back in order. Things have kind of fallen apart over the last little while, as you might imagine, having seen the state of my mind."

Elizabeth, seated on the sofa, sipped from a tall glass of water; she looked visibly drained. "Alex," she started in her charming accent, "I might trouble you to away me back to the U.K. I've done all I can for Sarah, and have found the whole thing a might... taxing."

Alex nodded. "I can send you home now if you'd like," he said simply, his eyes suddenly lighting slightly.

The Ensign nodded, then squawked slightly when Sarah lifted her off the floor and crushed her in a hug. "I really do owe you," the brawny girl said.

"Yes, yes, well, we'll figure out some method of repayment, then," the mentalist managed as she was set down. Straightening herself, she said, "Good night, all," looked at Alex, and then was gone.

******

I would also add my thanks to Sarah's. You're help means more to me than you can know. Should you ever need my help, call me...

Then she felt Alex withdraw and she was alone. It was apparent that the young man she had met in London had managed to tap the potential she had sensed in him. For a moment, Elizabeth almost felt sorry for the one who had assaulted Sarah. Almost - the things she had seen in Sarah's mind were terrible indeed. She only hoped that she'd been able to repair most of the damage. With a little shudder, she went to the kitchen to make some tea. Or perhaps something a little stronger...

******

"You'd better," Tommy returned from the glass doors that opened to the deck. "Because that's your boyfriend's primary mode of transport these days, from the looks of things."

Alex glanced over at Champion, the stars in his eyes fading. He said nothing as Sarah took him by the hand and led him over to where Tommy looked out over the moonlit ocean. Taking his hand as well, Sarah lowered her eyes as she spoke.

"You're both great friends to me, and I don't want to hurt either of you. Let me... let me sort through some things, and we'll see what happens. Right now, I can't promise anything to either of you, other than my gratitude and lasting friendship." Sarah raised her chin, and her blue eyes shone in the moonlight. "Okay?"

"Okay." Tommy said, hiding his feelings badly.

Alex bowed his head slightly and, looking at the floor, said, "As you wish."

"Thanks," Sarah said softly, looking at each man in turn. "Now, about tonight..."

"Fortunately, I've got some guest rooms that I can make available." Tommy said, directing his comments to Sarah. "Unfortunately, I'm going to be gone early tomorrow - gotta go to Kansas City to talk with the local authorities and deal with the fallout from the death of Soulkiller. You can leave me a message. Keep me informed. I'll be in touch."

"Be careful, Tommy." Sarah said.

"Sure," Tommy promised with a wide smile, not yet knowing whether the encounter would be a routine mission, a trap like the one that left him stranded in the Zero Prison dimension for months - or worse. The life of a superhero.

Instead, he left the two of them alone, and flew back to the family farm in Nebraska. A good jumping off point for Kansas, he told himself, trying hard not to think on the flight.

The sun had not yet risen in Nebraska, but Tommy's hometown of Milford, two hours ahead of California, was close enough to dawn that the farm was already stirring. He flew to the sheds, ignoring everyone but his father, who was busy unpacking sacks of manure.

"Dad," Omega said. "I've been thinking about you and mom - and grandpa and grandma - and I've got a question."

"Go ahead, Tom."

"How come the love life of everyone in this family always end up... like that?" he asked, pointing to the contents of the sack.

"Beats me, Tom." his dad shrugged, acknowledging a well-worn truth while continuing his work.

******

The pair had moved outside onto the deck when Tommy left, and Sarah's eyes were on the stars. The moon reflected on the water, and the soft rumble of the Pacific Ocean filled the night air. In another time, it would have been quite a romantic scene.

"He's pretty upset," Sarah said, leaning on the railing and not answering her companion's question.

"Who?" Alex asked. "Champion?"

"Yep," Sarah said simply, her eyes still on the heavens.

"Mm-hm," the tall man answered quietly.

Another period of silence followed, until Sarah finally turned her head and looked Alex directly in the eyes. She'd never looked more beautiful, despite everything that had happened that day.

"Alex..." she began softly, "that night..."

"When I... came to you?"

"Yes. That night - it was pretty unbelievable. In many ways."

"I agree," Alex said, his cheeks burning slightly as he thought of what they'd done.

"I mean, the sex was great, yeah - especially that last time - but... but the way you are now - the way you can get..."

Alex raised his eyebrows.

"It scares the hell out of me, Alex. Even before I had those awful memories - I've been really nervous about what our next time together will be like. I mean... you're like a god or something now. I know you're still you, but when you're whisking people halfway around the world in the blink of an eye - when you're completely rewriting reality the way you did in Ireland..." Sarah looked out towards the ocean. "I guess I'm just kind freaked out by it."

"Closer to the 'or something,' I think," said Alex quietly. "Many things I might be, but a god is not one of them. I do have limits... But I know what you mean. Believe it or not, it freaks me out a little as well. A few months ago, I couldn't so much as start a fire without a lighter or maybe having 'The Doors' playing in the background."

Sarah smiled slightly.

"As far as rewriting reality... Well, I can let you in on a little secret there. 'Reality' is not etched in stone. If it were, there wouldn't be much point to it. While every living thing lives in, and is affected by reality, reality is also changed in the process. You do it when you change channels on a television, eat a piece of fruit, or turn a page in a book. You do it when you chase down a getaway vehicle and then rip the doors off of it's hinges. It's mostly just a matter of scale."

"If it helps, if I had to do something right now, this instant," he said, "the best I could manage would be to light a fire without a match. My full... power, for lack of a better term, is more like a... private reservoir. Instead of music being the inspiration of my powers, now it's more of a conduit. While there's music, I can draw on that reservoir."

"But what does that do to you?" asked Sarah. "You change when you become more powerful, Alex. I've seen it in your eyes, in the way you act."

Alex hesitated for a moment. He didn't want to frighten Sarah away, but she deserved to know. In for a penny...

"When I draw on the power, my awareness increases. I begin to learn... no, remember things. It's as if all of the extra knowledge I gain had been set aside when I became human - like there's just too much for a human to know, or even should know. For instance, at the moment I only have vague memories of some of the stuff I did in Ireland after I came back. I'm certain that a few hours ago, I could have told you more details than I can remember now..."

Alex drew a slow breath, not wanting to say the words and yet not wanting to hold anything back. Sarah looked at him expectantly, and he went on.

"The worst drawback is that the more power I draw, the less... well... the less human I am, I suppose. I mean, I don't totally forget who I am as Alex, but the desire to draw on that reservoir becomes greater. The danger is that I won't want to release it to return to 'normal,' whatever that is. That is what frightens me the most. So far, the desire to remain human has been stronger than the desire to..." He left the sentence unfinished, as though words failed him.

"My God..." Sarah breathed, suddenly like her own concerns were very insignificant - petty, even.

"I don't want to stop being human, Sarah. Not yet. Not for a long time. The Universe is wondrous beyond imagining. To be part of it on a grand scale is something that I could never describe - there are no languages adequate to the task. But I'd be alone..."

Moving closer, Sarah's eyes were full of sympathy. "Oh, Alex... I'm so sorry. I hadn't even thought how this might be affecting you." Gently turning her friend towards her, she hugged the man, affectionately pressing her face into his shoulder. Minutes passed before she broke the hug and led him back indoors.

Closing the sliding doors behind them, Sarah pointed at the sofa and said, "Sit." Alex did, and in short order she'd grabbed a blanket and snuggled up against him. "Let's not think of what happened today, or what might be happening to you. Let's just... let's just try to be a couple of friends who are lucky to be in one another's company."

Alex put his arm around the girl as she leaned into him, and he nodded, though his thoughts were still heavy. "Right," he answered, wondering indeed what was happening to him.

Before long, Sarah was soundly asleep, and for the first time in days, she didn't dream. The nightmare was over.
 

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