“Out of the way!” Jeremy yelled after stepping out of the limo.

Macy had driven him as close as they could get by road, leaving them nearly a mile from the ongoing fight between the psychics. A couple were on the side of the road, both of them holding up cameras to get a good view of the fight.

“[Get out of the way!]” Macy repeated to them in Itallian, walking behind him. The residents of the town had hesistated when they saw Jeremy was the one yelling, but she made it clear they were serious. “[You die if you don’t move.]”

They quickly ran back to their car without putting up a fight. “[What is happening?]” woman asked to Madam Illuma as she did.

“[I don’t know, but your peril has been foretold. I ask that you make yourself scarce, for your own safety.]”

They quickly got back in then drove toward the city.

“That idiot! What is she thinking?!” Jeremy said to himself, gritting his teeth nervously. “I know I practically let this happen but…”

“I would know,” Yellow said.

“Then explain yourself,” Blue responded. “Just what was Parkarka keeping secret?”

“Hmm…that Azad is no longer in this world.”

“He is dea-” Jeremy began, before cutting himself off. “Oh…wait, you mean-”

“Yes,” he said. “When Parkarka was the last remaining defense against Azad, she finally crushed his defenses, leaving him defenseless. I saw it happen, the same way it did with your sister. Before she could finish him, the green light overtook Azad.”

“You mean…she lied to the world about what happened to him?” Jeremy said, his eyes wide. “I hadn’t heard about that before, so I’d guess that’s why…”

“Yes. I didn’t follow Jana because Parkarka has Recognition, but it’s obviously what caused this.”

Jeremy looked toward the ruthless battle three kilometers away. “Jana got traumatized by what happened in The Catastrophe…” Jeremy said slowly. “But she still rose up and fought to right the wrongs that led to it…and made a new life for herself…but…” he sighed. “If that’s true, I can’t even blame her for doing this. Her whole life has been based on defeating someone who wasn’t even there to begin with…at least, kinda.”

“It makes sense,” Blue commented thoughtfully. “Even if she knows he’s alive, the bond between super psychics is a strong one. They have formed social circles between one another, even if they have a tendency to dislike each other. I would compare them to a reluctant family. To learn that she had spoken such a blatant lie in front of the people who trusted her, fought and bled with her, and bonded with her in a battle to save humanity as a whole…Well, her rage is warranted, but clearly-”

“I sense it,” Macy said, grabbing Jeremy’s hand. “Hold tight.”

“Wha-”

Suddenly, a chunk of ice, batted aside by Parkarka’s arm, flung toward them. Jeremy saw the supersonic object far too late to evade it, and he gripped Macy’s hand for dear life as it crashed into the ground. Before it crashed, however, the world warped in an instant. He suddenly fell a couple feet, and his vision was enveloped in dust.

Jeremy touched his chest, unsure if he was still alive. Macy had told him she had the ability to warp him a few seconds into the future, but to see it happen…As the dust settled, he could see both Macy and the enormous spear of light not far away.

“I said I would protect you, no?” Macy said, casually patting dust off her butt.

“Yeah…” Jeremy said, his heart racing. “But having a spear soar toward me is really damn scary, even when I know I’m safe.”

“Mmm…well, you should be hap

Suddenly, a chunk of ice, already batted aside by Parkarka’s arm, flung toward them. Jeremy knew it was headed for him already, but the spear was not what was on his mind. Macy caught his hand in a deathgrip while he was too stunned to react. Before it crashed, the world warped in an instant.

The spear appeared to disappear instead of continue it’s course, and as Jeremy tried to understand what had happened, he saw the spear had instead flung back toward Parkarka in a haphazard arc. Parkarka was sent flying across the forest, thrown down by Jana’s direct collision.

“Hmm…” Macy frowned as she looked toward the sky. “I could have sworn I could see it striking us in the future. Strange.”

“U-umm…” Jeremy rubbed his temples. “What the fuck just happened?”

“Language, boy. And I’m not quite sure. Perhaps I’m off my game today.”

“H-huh…” Jeremy shook his head. Whatever had just happened must have been related to what Macy had done…

“Perhaps we changed the future just by being here…” Macy muttered. “But that’s not what’s important, now. I’m not surprised that Jana would do this -after all, she has a bad reputation- but Parkarka…why would she engage with that girl? Or be so callous?” Macy looked to Jeremy. “This has something to do with what you were talking about, right? Do you know how to stop those two before they endanger anyone else? You mentioned one other event?”

Jeremy nodded slowly. “There’s only one other place I remember.” He pointed into the forest below the fight. “There’s a clearing that I saw in some bird’s eye view, I think it’s that way. I need to stand there.”

“Are you mad?” the Psychic Master asked skeptically. “I can slip us through time to avoid danger, as you just witnessed, but only so often. Is it your intent to walk beneath a battle between great psychics? Surely you understand what that entails?”

Jeremy nodded. “I know what it entails. If you guide me through, I can get there without being hurt or creating a butterfly effect,” he said. “But I can’t blame you if you’re too chicken to do it,” he finished with a chuckle.

Madam Illuma clicked her tongue. “That’s a young boy if I ever spoke to one…But alright,” she kicked aside a piece of rubble. “Can we make it in time?”

“I dunno,” Jeremy said, immediately running forward.

Macy reluctantly followed, leaving the two beings alone.

“Hmm…then why did he stand around aimlessly for two minutes?” Yellow asked grumpily.

“Give the kid some slack,” Blue retorted, annoyed. “He isn’t any sort of prodigy in tense situations.”

“I don’t know about that…” the other being said with a tilt of his head. “Something tells me that he’s hiding something…”

“Hiding something? About what?”

“About his experiences. Yet…he isn’t lying.”

“You sure seem confident in your ability to snuff out lies.”

“It’s a talent I have.”

“Well, I can’t fathom why you would sense anything off about that kid, but you do you if you wish to read too deeply into the riddle.”

“Hmm…”

Thunder rang out through the forest as the battle continued.

Jana knocked aside spears of light as she pursued Parkarka, once more on the offense.

Neither of them were exactly trying to ‘knock out’ the other. While that was what both Parkarka and Jana were aiming for, the truth was that they were prolonging the fight, giving the other a chance to stand up so they could beat the shit out of them well and truely.

It was like a boxing match where one boxer would pull their punch just as they were about to get the KO, looking to mentally and physically drain their foe, then send them to the hospital for a week with a devastating strike.

Jana had stopped thinking long ago, her slick, practiced movements, and superior kinesis giving Jana the edge she needed to nearly overpower Parkarka, someone she had known she would never be capable of defeating.

She didn’t know, now, if that was still the case. Jana wanted to prove to herself that she could do it- that she could train her ass off and show everyone that it could be done. Super psychics were ordinary people on the inside, but that also meant they could be extraordinary in their own ways.

Jana’s sheer willpower had brought her to this moment, had shaped who she was, had shaped the world around her, and had made her a psychic to be reckoned with, even for someone a league stronger than her, like Parkarka.

Their battle took them through the forest in a clash of ice and light, topping trees, breaking rocks, freezing the ground, burning the forest.

Today, though she was angry, Jana felt she had something to prove. Her willpower, so far as she thought, was stronger than Parkarka’s, and her ability to overcome the other woman’s inborn strength would show that will meant something. It was what Jana stood for, what she believed in, what she was prepared to die for, when that time came.

But…

Jeremy heard the destruction from nearly a kilometer away, resounding through the forest in intimidating, rapid crashes louder than thunder, massive objects casually being flung faster than the speed of sound.

“Why am I risking my life like this…” Madam Illuma said after a rock crashed through three trees a dozen meters away, the shockwave briefly deafening and nearly tripping them.

“Because I need to stop them!” Jeremy responded, jogging through so that the woman, trying her best to run in a dress, could keep up.

“Will one of them die if you fail?” she asked.

“I think not,” he admitted. “I just have a feeling I need to do this.”

“Yet it does not ceace to be easier said than done. You said that they clash in the clearing ahead, yes? How would you hope to halt two forces of nature?”

“You’ll see,” he said. “I trust Jana.”

“I don’t trust the way you said that, young man…”

“RAAAH!” Jana landed a decisive strike on Parkarka, her lance landing on the centerpoint of her psychic shield, yet as Jana did, thrusting with all her strength, four spears of light crashed into her body, followed up by a rock which uppercutted her, catching Jana’s gut and sending her upward before crashing to the ground. She began to stand, and saw Parkarka doing the same, somehow still standing after nearly thirty minutes of intense fighting.

A psychic’s endurance was directly reliant on their willpower, however it was maintained.

Yet Jana was mere strikes from blacking out, her psychically reinforced body growing weaker by the strike. Had Jana had more experience with her new ability, she would know that losing the battle in the state she was in was an incredibly dangerous possibility, but she wasn’t.

More reused boulders appeared from the sky, and began to rain on Jana. She dashed toward the clearly weak Parkarka, barely avoiding the quick strikes with trained footwork. She didn’t have the strength to spend on shattering them anymore. She leaped forward, and slammed her fist down where Parkarka had stood, creating a crater as the other psychic quickly dashed away, hugging the ground in her flight.

Jana continued her pursuit, sidestepping as spears of light and rocks continued to threaten her from each direction, her empowered physical strength giving her far more acceleration and speed than the somewhat more unwieldy flight.

Her lance suddenly appeared, floating above Parkarka, and the other psychic realized how close she was to losing.

Jana telekinetically thrust it down, only for Parkarka to tumble to the left, out of the way, while Jana leaped up to grab its handle, then pry it from the dirt before thrusting it again, toward the running psychic.

A rock suddenly crashed into the spear from above, cracking it in two, so Jana chucked it away and sent a right hook at Parkarka.

Her fist collided with the stalwart psychic, and Parkarka tumbled away, but as she did, a spear of light hit Jana in the back of her head.

Her vision blurred, her head knocked to the side, but deflecting the spear.

Yet she lunged and punched Parkarka’s barrier again, only for another spear to deflect off her abdomen.

She felt bile nearly rise to her throat.

Parkarka sipped like a rock into the other side of a clearing, and stood her ground as two more spears appeared in her hands. She burst toward Jana as she leaped to meet her attack, meeting her in the center.

They roared as the fight’s end approached.

More than two years ago.

Jana could hardly think.

Everyone was dead. Her mother, who she had barely known for two years; dead. Her acquaintances, other super psychics who had fought for the lives of others; dead. This city, once thriving, was filled with blood; blood splattered across the walls, bodies fallen on the ground; dead. Her father, the person she loved most; dead.

She simply waited for the end of it all to come, a blanket pointlessly draped over her as she looked down at the grey concrete below.

Two people sat beside her, similarly broken, their faces devoid of any emotion. All of it had drained after what had happened.

It rained on them, wetting their clothes, hair, and blankets with cold water, yet none of them had the strength to do anything about it.

“I’m…sorry,” a boy whose hair had once been spiked up said. The gel keeping it aloft had rinsed off after the long days of fighting. Nobody looked at him as he spoke. “I was so close…” he said mournfully. “I had him, but- I…I didn’t see it coming and I-” he stopped speaking.

A woman, much older than either the twenty-year-old boy and fifteen-year-old Jana, said, “They can do it.” Despite being as distraught as the others. “I believe in those two.”

…

Jana was pulled into a hug by the woman, yet her expression didn’t change.

Some time passed, the super psychics watching over the dead, toppled city with their own, dead expressions. They were so mentally exhausted that it was impossible to cry or feel anything, even when they saw the scene before them.

Corpses lined the streets, outside of view, but after what had happened, it meant nothing to them.

Eventually, one person approached, flying from beyond the horizon.

“Is it…who is that?” the boy asked slowly. “Did they win?” there was a twinge of hope in his voice.

They waited for the figure to approach, and they landed haphazardly at the bottom of the pile of rubble the three psychics sat upon.

They waited for Parkarka to look up, and tell them what had happened.

“I…” she began, looking up at them with teary eyes. “He…he died…I couldn’t save him.”

“Who died?” Jana said without any palpable emotion.

“…(),” Parkarka said.

“Did he die?” Jana asked dispassionately.

There was a full minute’s pause, hope slowly dying in the three psychic’s eyes as it passed.

“He…” Parkarka finally began. “He ran away.”

…

Jana’s head fell into her shaking hands, and she began to cry. She cried loudly, her head cupped between her shaking hands, her sadness somehow intensifying.

That he was still out there, was horrifying. It wasn’t over.

Everything they had fought for, everything they had all bled, endured, and died for, was made worthless.

Jana didn’t know if she could go on, if her brain or muscles would ever let her stand again. It had taken everything she had just to make it here, yet it would happen all over again.

To know it had all failed burnt Jana from the inside out, like she’d been reduced to tinder, her emotions blazing from a spark.

Yet she didn’t know the truth. She was lied to, by someone who didn’t want to tell them what had really happened. The nineteen-year-old Parkarka had been afraid, and had felt so incredibly guilty in her failure to finish Azad off that she had lied to the people who would have unconditionally trusted her.

Yes, it was a messy lie. She had still told them she failed, but it was difficult to say the truth. To her, it would almost be disrespectful to claim that some mysterious force had simply done what none of them ever could. Just the same, she felt she would never be believed, that it would be interpreted as an excuse.

Parkarka felt immensely ashamed of herself, to the point that she dug her own grave.

It may have seemed like mental gymnastics, but after what had happened, the young woman was simply afraid to say the full, unbelievable truth.

What she didn’t understand was that they would have easily accepted anything she said, no matter how impossible it seemed, no matter how unbearable it was.

Because they had fought and bled together.

And that trust had been betrayed. Jana had almost known it was a lie, even back then.

Parkarka wasn’t a good liar.

And her lies had alienated her from the other psychics, including Jana, the only one she knew of who had called her out on it.

But she had always wanted to trust her.

Her eyes widened as they approached each other with finishing blows.

He stared at her, his expression devoid of fear as it had been the time they first met, when Jana had lashed out at him in frustration.

Dead. Jana felt crushing fear as she saw him standing in her path.

She remembered what had happened during The Catastrophe. She had so desperately fought to save people, yet…so many had stood before her like him.

And she never could stop, because if she had, she would have died.

Her rage instantly vanished, and Jana immediately planted her feet doing all she could to halt before…

With flight and her strength combined, dirt flung launched upward as she quickly decelerated from nearly twice the speed of sound to nothing in a split second.

Jeremy didn’t flinch as she came to a halt two meters from him. At the same time, a shriek of fear echoed through the woods as dirt first flung over Jeremy, then a spear sliced hardly three centimeters from his neck as Parkarka came to a stop not a meter from him, so terrified that she looked almost ready to faint.

He slowly placed two fingers on the spear, the physical light warm to the touch, then sidled it away from his neck as the two psychics stared on in horrified silence.

Jeremy cleared his throat, glancing back at Parkarka with a mildly annoyed expression. “You two need to chill.”

How the fuck- why is he so calm? Jana thought, hyperventilating as she felt her body nearly fall out of her control, ice flitting across the ground, and freezing Jeremy’s shoes to the ground.

He glanced between them as Parkarka stumbled backward, her spear of light disappearing once her shock had lifted, and collapsed onto her butt, both the psychics hyperventilating with unfocused eyes.

Oh no, this is some trauma response shit, Jeremy thought nervously. “U-umm…how about we just call it a day, eh?” he pleaded. I’d planned on scolding them, but Jana looks like she’s about to have a seizure or something. What the fuck do I do now?”

He stood between them awkwardly as he looked between them in silence, feeling guilty as both Jana nd Parkarka clutched their legs, utterly distraught. Slowly, he squatted down, worried for them. “Sorry…” he slowly said. “I didn’t want to scare you two…” Though I was afraid one of you would kill the other on accident…

“Are you…okay?” he asked Jana, before glancing to Parkarka, implying the same question.

Jana said nothing, but her expression moved just enough to say: ‘of course I’m not, you fucking idiot.’, which was precisely what she was thinking.

Parkarka didn’t seemed to respond, though, staring wide-eyed at the ground.

“U-umm…” he pulled out his phone suddenly, then quickly typed in, ‘what to do if someone is having a panic attack’. After reading the first result in a few seconds, he said, “Uhh…L-look, I’m pretty sure you two are having panic attacks, so…uhh, do you need anything?”

Jana reached out her hand, surprising him. Tears began to well from her eyes again. As he reached out, she violently grabbed his wrist, then closed her eyes, her breath slowing.

He could feel her fingers and arm trembling, as though Jana were cold, seeking warmth.

Jeremy glanced to Parkarka. “Umm…and do you need anything…? Cause’, I’m, uhh…here, if you, like, need…help.”

She shook her head, then outstretched her legs, placing her hands on her thighs while she leaned forward, looking at the ground in contemplation. He could see and hear her breath quaking.

And that was how they remained.