A/N: Double update :3

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Chapter Forty-Six: Tag, You're It

As Rain slides off my talons, black blood flooded the ground from the open wound and his mouth.

"Why?" He chokes.

I look down at him. "'Why did I know?'" my head tilts to the side. My eyes taking in the Hexer that still couldn't look me in the eye. "Because that asshat over there would never ask for help from something like me. Even if he's on his deathbed, like a fucking moron." I kneel down to this malformed, imperfect copy of Rain, "I'm sorry...but I can't let you win. You can sleep now. You don't have to fight." Rain coughs and lands on his side as his eyes close in a satisfied slumber, turning into mush as it fades away. I felt its dissipating thoughts. "It used your worst fears against you. Turning you into something that you so ironically...so bitterly hate, right?" I look at the Hexer...Rain, fully.

"...How could you be so sure?" A voice. His voice asks. His mouth doesn't move but I could still hear him as if he was talking anyway. Joy to me.

I give a lop-sided grin, "I wasn't."

Rain finally looked me in the eye. "You're an ass."

"Only when it's due and quite frankly I am half tempted to leave you like this." I get back to my feet and take a step closer to him. "In misery with your mind still tainted like this. Feel all this pain with every last breath. Not like you have many left, anyway." I felt a strange sense of empowerment. I could say everything I wanted against him. He was raw and wound up and I wasn't afraid. In here there were no guns. No Outsider or Insider. No rules. No Fence. Just me, and him.

"This is my mind! I control everything!" He hisses back. The ground begins to shake and the pine trees suddenly shed their spines, all pointing at me like needles suspended in the air.

"Lucid dreamer are we?" My grin didn't shift, but my hand did, snapping my finger and thumb together. "You see," a click sounded and the sharp needles turned into the tiny little orbs that floated away. "This might be your mind but this is my territory." I shrug, "I don't feel afraid of you at all. However," I hold out my hand to him. "It's now your choice and last chance."

"What?"

"I can help you. But it is your decision now, Rain." My words echo as the trees began to crumble and peel away, floating around like cinders. His world is starting to rot away. There isn't any more time. "I stopped the Hexer from taking your body and ...most of your mind is intact, yes. But I have not removed its poison. Your body in the real world is a wreck. It won't be easy. It will be painful...well less painful than it will be for me. But you are going to have to take my hand and let me in."

He looks at my claws doubtfully, then back up at me.

"Just what are you?"

How am I supposed to know?

"You don't have time, Rain. You are dying." I push. "Take my hand!"

And with that, the Hexer reaches out and his fingers brush my balm. I look up into his eyes that were still doubtful and I take a breath. At first it was nothing more than a prickling sensation but then it turned into a slow and agonising trickle of molten barbs travelling along my arm as I watch the goo slowly travel from Rain's fingers...his palm, wrist. I was slowly taking it in, leaving him whole behind and with it, shards of memories that he couldn't conceal quick enough. It felt like I was watching a glitching movie. With Rain of all people...

Outsiders did a raid on his house, killing his family in front of him. I was seeing a child, small and scared, looking at his sister who was always weak in hospital and feeling guilt for thinking it would have been better if she did die in her sleep, instead of watching her suffer over and over.

I look at Rain, completely exposed. "It's ok, Rain."

He shuts me out of his thoughts, hating me more for seeing. Then the gruesome training and his life. I saw flashes of how he and Mist were found when they were only ten. None of this was in order and it was making me dizzy. Well that and the staggering pain, taking this much shit directly into my system. My skin felt like it was on fire but I didn't let go. Rain began to realise how his resistance and fear was hurting me and...he let go. I look at him again. He's just constantly afraid.

Then it shifts to a fuzzy, locked memory that was pretty recent.

"You don't need to let me see, if you don't want." I manage to wheeze out of my lungs. I can change the course.

"That's Reed..." his voice was tiny. Quiet, all reserve and irritation gone. I see the woman. She was pretty, feline with short black hair and bright, impossible purple eyes. He showed me fragments of how she moved and captivated Mist and Rain both. Mist trusted her and Reed showed them, lead them to a new life. She was the one who found them...taught them...she was their surrogate mother. I stop him from showing any more. "Don't give it all away," I groan, stopping him from flooding me with all the built up emotion that he kept hidden away for so long.

He then switches over to when he opens the door to find most of the HQ in ruins, so many were dead and X...stood over the body of Reed with no emotion. His form feral in the dark.

I let out a breath as most of the darkness leaves him.

He then shifts to the sandy beaches, seeing the glowing sand for the first time when he was about five. "They're called dinoflagellates." He finally says after some time. "We saw it on a holiday at some beach." And it stuck in his memories like a branding iron.

I grin, "They are pretty cool."

"It's a lot to take in. That...this all existed once upon a time." He switches to a normal living room with a large TV above the fireplace and Christmas decorations basically vomited all over the walls and furniture. "That 'normality' once existed." Mist's favourite game with him and their pet dog, a little dachshund called 'Comet' was tag, running around the coffee table in front of the fireplace, passed the Christmas tree (that was about to keel over with the amount of tinsel was strangling it) and around the house. "It's...painful to remember."

"...Just because you can't go back doesn't mean you can't keep these memories close, salvage them...find something that can be your 'normal'. Besides, define 'normal'," I'm beginning to sound like X, I almost chuckle through the pain. I look around and see that the beach returned. Waves crashing into the shore with little blue lights traveling in and out with each waves. Found the water, stupid voice in my head!

He went to leave my grasp, knowing that I had taken in all the poison but I tighten my grip. "Not yet," I growl. "I can take in most of the damage. Enough to keep you stable and seen to."

Rain looked back at me, realising what I meant. "But you'll-"

"Collateral damage," I mutter as I feel a new burning sensation across my scalp and along my back. I choke back a whimper but hold on.

Not yet.

"You need to stop," Rain began to pull on me.

I shake my head, "Not yet."

A little more.

"Stop...please! You'll kill yourself!"

"Not yet," my bones began to drain of marrow and snap and I gasp as ice skewers through my lungs.

"Stop it now!" He pulls on my arm. "Why!? Why are you going so far for me!? I've been nothing but an asshole to you."

Oh look an epiphany from stupid-ass. I grin through bloody teeth, trying not to choke on the blood filling my lungs. "Don't flatter yourself, you stupid bastard. I'm not doing it for you."

"Then are you doing it so that I feel like I owe you? So that I feel like I'm permanently in your debt?"

As self-satisfying as that sounds..."No, idiot."

"Then why!?"

"...Because Mist doesn't deserve to feel the same loneliness that I have."

I feel him crumple and saw what I looked like through his eyes. A reminder. A monster.

I finally let go and felt myself fall backwards. He gasps, reaching forward as I fall off a ledge, reaching out for me. "You're an ass yourself." I mutter as his fingers misses. "It's now up to you. Fight to survive, dumbfuck." Do I even get a 'thank you' from this asshole?

And with that, I was suspended in limbo. The pain and the fire burning me to cinders and dust but nothing changed. This eternal torment was driving me insane. Over and over. It burns. Even my tears hurt as they scald my cheeks. Why am I even crying?

I feel myself begin to fall and something catches me. I cry out as their touch burns like acid-fire as they pressed in on my wounds and broken body. I look up and see X staring down at me, his eyes wide and in panic. I reach for his face to tell him that I'm ok. But my hand didn't make it, he catches my hand and I realise that it was still demon like but he didn't hesitate. He's never hesitated to reach for my hand. His mouth was moving but I couldn't hear anything.

That's strange, everything is fuzzy. But that doesn't matter. Next thing I feel a wave of nausea as my world turns at a weird angle and shuts to black like I ran into a brick wall. Somewhere in the distance I can feel something desperately calling out.

Ah fuck I still need to check the SD card.

I'm sorry Anne.

I'm sorry...

But please let me sleep for just a little while.