Mathew

Maybe he was overthinking it. Just because Grant was under the effect of an illusion didn't mean Mathew could pull him out. But he had to try.

Propping Grant up against the stone wall, Mathew reached out with his mental attack skill. Grant's mind was a lethargic, dull ball of cables.

Other minds Mathew had observed were full of complexity. Strings that split and interwove into a tight mesh where any thought could lead many different directions. This was a twisting of mental flow where no matter what path his mind chose, it would wind up drawn along the tube to the other end.

Braced for the expected reactions, Mathew's human side grieved the betrayal of free will. The feelings flowed over his existence and faded. The Carrion Beast side of him salivated at prey brought into perfect defenselessness. This too, Mathew let flow over him until it disappeared.

Centered and ready, Mathew sent his awareness into Grant's streams of thought. A tension resisted his entry. The cable insulation was keeping him from connecting. Whatever mechanism was used to reduce connections internally fought against Mathew as well.

Turning his mental energy into a razor-sharp claw, Mathew's heart reverberated in his chest. A blind mind surgeon, that is what he was. No school, no understanding of the consequences of his actions. But there was no one else.

Gently cutting away at the cable sheath, Mathew slowly ramped up pressure until it cut through. While drawing his mind blade through the insulation, splitting it open, he noticed that it closed itself behind his effort.

Okay, next attempt.

Mathew exposed a section of Grant's mind and connected to it. Images lit up across the cable of thought. A surreal maze of distorted memories with bent space came to life, filtered by the intelectus of his skill. As his intelectus tried to process all of the mental landscape, the poison's illusion spread out, trying to wrap around the extension of Mathew's mind.

Leveraging his alpha phage power, Mathew started tearing apart the poison's illusion.

While this went on, he watched the whole state of Grant's psyche. At first, they gained ground against the infection. After the layer over the cables were thinned to half their original size, progress stuttered to a halt. Mathew continued to destroy and consume the mind-based illusion but it was at the same rate that the poison created more.

The solution to this wasn't to break down the illusion but to eliminate the poison directly... and he couldn't do that. It was in Grant's blood, not something he could attack mentally. Mathew wanted to at least reach Grant and let him know what was going on.

So he traveled across Grant's mind looking for a bright spot of activity. Images and feelings crossed over to Mathew as he skimmed the life of another. He wasn't trying to invade all the memories and privacies but he didn't have any training at mind surgery. If Grant had a problem with it, he could bring it when he was alive and walking.

Some memories were tied together in order of occurrence. Schools Grant had been to as a child, there were a lot of them. Other memories were chaotic and ordered by emotional meaning. There were not a lot of these. While he was as passionate as anyone, those feeling were just buried deep.

When his emotions did control the memories, they were centered around Annaline or survival alone in some Alaskan mountains later in life.

Finding a bright cluster of mind cables, Mathew slid over to them and connected.

It was a desert. Echos of Grant fighting, with a shovel/spade he'd used for prospecting, against a table-sized land crab covered in plants. Sitting on a rock was Grant's active mind. Looking at his stat page.

"Not right, not right, not right, it's not right." Grant's voice was a deep growl.

"Grant," Mathew interrupted. "Do you know what is going on?"

No response.

Shaking the man's shoulder, Mathew repeated his question.

"What?" Grant's eyes finally focused on him. "You don't belong here."

"I said do you know what is going on? Or where you really are?" Mathew pressed again.

"Yellow, rabbit, gum, eighty, sideways." Grant gave him a perfectly natural look as though he had said something less disjointed.

"Uh, what the fuck." Mathew was taken aback.

"You're real!" Grant's face cracked into a wily expression.

"And you are trapped in a mental illusion."

"Get me out!" Grant demanded.

"Okay, how?" Mathew replied.

"How the hell did you get in here? Do that backwards." Grant gestured frantically.

"Let me get you caught up to speed first."

Mathew explained what he knew from Ben. An abbreviated version of their time together with a focus on the mental powers Mathew was using and the scan from the poison.

"I see. Thank you, son." Grant sat back on the stone.

The desert around them shifted with Grant's churning thoughts. Mathew got the suspicion that Grant had more going on upstairs than he did.

"If it comes to it, you don't let Ben stay with you. You hear me!" Grant grabbed hold of Mathew's avatar by force of will.

"Yeah, I hear you but you're going to have to tell him yourself when we get you out of this illusion."

"Fat chance of that. I applaud your success so far but the answer being only a few days away isn't likely. Let me go and focus on the living." Grant gestured vaguely at the sky.

For the first time Mathew remembered his hybrid existence kicked in with both sides working together. The tragedy of surrender and the unacceptability of weakness galvanized Mathew's willpower. A swell of power flooded behind his intelectus. The desert they stood in shook and darkened. "You will survive!" Mathew's voice became a presence shaking the mental world.

[New skill awarded: Mental support 1

Convert willpower into a temporary boost to resistance. ]

Funneling all his spare willpower into a boost for Grant, his presence in the mind space flickered. "I'm giving you a chance. Fight the poison. Give it nothing to feed on. Starve it out." With that last word, he sent along a memory of his final encounter with the wraith.

Eating away at the poison and funneling excess energy into mental support, Mathew kept up his vigil. When he got tired, he'd trickle power into conversion. When his focus wavered, Mathew remembered everyone he'd ever met that he wished he could have supported this directly.

Trent, so he could have had the courage to stand up to Mom and Dad. Tiffany, his ex-girlfriend, who'd struggled with substance abuse. Every time Harper cringed away from cutting up the deer. Or when Ben carried so much weight, he had to look at everyone else like dead men walking to carry on.

Now he had an outlet for a lifetime of having his care for others crash against the walls of apathy and defeat. It was already a victory. Mathew could see it. Grant was going to wake up, and Ben wouldn't feel alone anymore.

Time passed this way focused to a single point.

[New skill awarded: Mental support 2. Mental support 2 overrides mental support 1]

[New skill awarded: Mental support 3. Mental support 3 overrides mental support 2]

[New skill awarded: Mental support 4. Mental support 4 overrides mental support 3]

An ache that conversion wasn't metabolizing away formed in Mathew's temples. Every heartbeat ratcheted the pain a sliver higher. As the seconds crawled into minutes and the minutes to hours, his resolve started to waver.

Is this all I can do? No, this torturous world will be balanced with some reward to make it worthwhile! If it doesn't exist yet, I'll break the world and make it so.

Channeling his health against the pain caused it to recede to a muted bellowing in the other room. Calling out at Mathew to stop.

Again time flowed. Mathew didn't know how long.

[New skill awarded: Mental support 5. Mental support 5 overrides mental support 4]

Opening the perk menu, Mathew looked over his options.

[Mental support ~ perk tier one

Amplify - Increase the effect of another's willpower

Process - Generate an intelectus to aid the processing of another

Reinforce - Improve the resistance buff as time goes along]

Selecting reinforce, Mathew grinned. Where there was a will, there was a way.

The feeling of reinforce ramping up the buff was mechanical and constructive. Slipping more health against the growing pain, he persisted.

As the buff kept growing, the poison receded. Layer by layer, the illusion slimmed down. It took time but the progress was evident. Spread thinner and thinner, Grant's mind began to buck under the control of the illusion.

Spreading out and branching connections between the cables, Grant's mind unspooled from captivity. Mathew's hybrid nature solidified on this success and drove him on.

A snapping crackled across the illusion and it broke in totality.

"RAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Mathew threw his head back. "Fuck yeah!"

Amber's drawn bow and knocked arrow swept the room and Harper's eyes bugged out.

Grant's dusty voice broke the silence. "Is that any way to wake up your elders? Kids these days, no respect."

"How are you feeling?" Harper asked.

"Much better, Miss Harper. Where is Ben." Grant looked around the Hub.

"Not sure, him and Mathew had a moment, so Ben took some space." Amber's bluntness earned a nod from Grant.

"So I've been out of the loop for several days now." Grant stood easily.

Resting his mind, Mathew worked his way out of the conversation. An actual fucking win and he didn't have to sacrifice who he was or become more inhuman. This is what the future would look like.

Ben

Hanging in the height of a soaring tree, Ben kept away from any significant predators. He didn't have a home he ran off to when he needed space and to be honest, he didn't really need one. Almost any place would do just fine. Like a bird, Ben could roost anywhere.

He needed the space to think. Not fighting the Alpha pack was the right call. Ben knew it, Grant knew it, Mathew admitted it. And yet, Ben had wanted to ambush and kill one himself.

Something about it was just right. It was honest. Ben spent all his time with stealth and deception, learning how to hide away and survive in the gaps. He hated it.

So when he watched Mathew live his dream and then defend it. He'd snapped. It wasn't right of him but you can't just show someone they were living wrong all along. That wasn't fair, Mathew hadn't been trying to do any of that.

Ben took a breath and calmed down.

They were a team and maybe they didn't need Ben anymore but he still needed them. Grant would have a fit if he found out that Ben gave away his leverage to negotiate with. Keeping the advantage of surviving in this world was something he was supposed to keep to himself until he had what he wanted.

This was too much, though. These were good people, and they shouldn't be strongarmed. Memories of doing just that bowed his shoulder with shame. Just like the first time he'd met Mathew, Harper and Amber. The guilt drove him to change. He couldn't keep living that way. It was wrong and it wasn't enough.

All the billions of lives Grant and Ben were trying to save just weren't enough when he looked at the carbonized burns and the running tears. Doing a disservice to billions of strangers pressed shame into the crevices that weren't already saturated. Ben curled up on the branch.

Nothing about this hellhole was fair.

So he brooded. Fully aware that is what he was doing. Between one shame he couldn't live with and another he hardly could, life just sucked.

The sun was out of sight and even from one of the monster trees, Ben couldn't see the horizon dimming. It as time to go home they would be worried about him. Home, that's what it was. Not a new branch every night or a covering of leaves and dirt over his nest.

It wasn't even just the creature comforts that made it home to him Amber's gleaming eyes, Mathew's chill chillness, and Harper's quiet dedication were what made this home. Why? Why did they have to die?

I could leave now, go off into the distance and find the native humans of this world. If I can't do anything, why torture myself by getting close?

Dropping towards the ground Ben wasn't sure where he was going. Into the distance, away from everyone or to the people who would hurt him by leaving.

With a lash of his willpower, Ben's net flung out and caught a durability reinforced branch. Slingshot through the air by his tether, Ben noticed he was being thrown at the Night Stalker spire. So be it.

Ben took it as a sign of the right decision.

Approaching the Hub he saw Mathew standing in the doorway, looking out into the darkness. Looking for him. Dropping his stealth magic Ben walked to the door.

"Hey Mat." Ben waved shallowly.

"Hey yourself." Mathew's creepy eyebrows rose, and Ben got the feeling he was trying to communicate a smile. "Need anything."

"Yeah," Ben rubbed his dripping nose on his sleeve. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I never really joined you guys in my mind. I'm sorry for everyone I let die without lifting a finger. I'm sorry for yelling at you when you stood up to this fucking world and killed a god damned monster."

In a step, Mathew was there giving him a hug. Ben let out a quiet noise. Then he felt his mind getting stronger. The pressure squeezing him like a vice backed off.

Ben threw his overpowered arms around Mathew and squeezed. No scaling back and no being gentle, Mathew didn't break.

"I hate this place and the man Grant turned me into. Thank you, Mathew. You're like the older brother I've never had." Ben felt the strength to stand straight, welling up within him. Taking a deep breath, he put back his shoulders that had crumpled over.

"Hate me if you want to. I'll make sure you get to live to do it." Grant growled from the doorway.