Truth be told, it was even possible that it had affected my ability to Awaken earlier on. Everyone had assumed that I was nothing more than a Blitzer, so that was all that I had tried to be.
I knew there would be time, if we survived, for that later on. It was something to discuss with my parents, with James, and maybe even Allison if she turned out to be on our side. Stranger things had certainly happened, especially recently.
As Nate slipped through my fingers, I gave up trying to be a Psychic and simply decided I was one.
Unfamiliar power flooded me, sinking into my consciousness. I wasn't entirely certain what to do with it, so I decided to work with what I had. I -wanted- to reach my lovers and our new associates. I needed to pull us out of the Dream.
So that's what I did.
The first step was dragging us together. Allison's control seemed much less certain when she had too many in the Dream in close quarters. Why? I had no idea. There was no training for what I was doing, as far as I knew, but I was doing it and that was what mattered the most to me.
Bit by bit, I pulled the senses I had of the others in toward me. Adam appeared by my side, then Nishelle. Nate and Edwin came as a pair, tired and ruffled. I got all of the Thomaston crew at once and was tempted to leave Lexi and Izzy floating in the nothingness. They had been so much more trouble than they were worth this entire time, but it was only fair to help them, too.
Izzy was easier than Lexi. I hadn't had much contact with Wreckless, but I knew Melody well. The image of her, blood pouring down her face as she screamed and blasted us to the ground? I twisted my memories of that agony, the confusion, the certainty of death together with who I knew her to be and yanked with all my ability.
And Izzy showed up, confused and visibly upset. She looked up at me. "Lexi?"
"I'm working on it, but she keeps slipping through my grasp," I said, panting.
Sheer exhaustion threatened to win out. James reached out toward me and took my hand. "I can help with that, if you'll let me."
"I don't know how to let you," I told him.
He shook his head. "Just don't fight me when I touch your mind. We'll get through it together, fix it, get her here. Then we'll get out and Allison won't know what hit her."
I liked the sound of that. Even so, my first reaction was to strike back when I felt a thrill of some icy touch in my mind. My fist tightened but I fought down the reaction to the bizarre invasion in my head. James nodded at me, something I felt more than I saw, and we both dragged Lexi into our little circle kicking and screaming.
Of course, Izzy threw herself at Lexi and kissed her all over. I tried not to growl at them over it and mostly managed to succeed.
The next part was a hell of a lot harder. We had to actually get out of the Dream and we hadn't managed it last time. Instead, my parents had come in and helped us through it. We were far beyond their help now.
"Any ideas, James?" I asked.
He looked around the interior of the void we inhabited and let go of me, folding his arms around himself. His shoe scuffed the floor we stood on, then he jabbed a nearby wall. All of it seemed relatively liquid to me, but the sound his shoe made implied otherwise. I frowned and tried to scuff mine.
Nothing happened.
Weird.
"I think it's best if we try to shatter it like a mirror. There's so much with regard to Psychic powers that involve figuring out what to do rather than regarding what you can and can't do."
"Isn't that one of Dad's rules?"
He shrugged. "It's either your dad or mine. I don't know. But human minds are ill-equipped for it in any case. We're hard-bound to the ideas and relativities in pure physics. We don't really expand our minds beyond the ideas of the concrete which we can see and measure, not what we can come up with."
"So if I just want this place to break and I decide it can-"
James nodded and came back to clasp hands with me. "It can. Or it should. You may encounter some resistance, but just remember that you're stronger than her. And you can have it your way."
"Like the old McDonald's commercials?" I cringed.
His eyes rolled. "Burger King. And you say old like they weren't on your Saturday cartoons. Concentrate. I'll help you."
Though he didn't say it, I assumed the implication that it was going to take us both. But if I assumed that, wouldn't it confirm it? God, Psychic bullshit made my head hurt. Give me a brick wall to smash down any day. Sure, it was neat to turn things into nothing because I decided that was how it was going to happen. But come on.
Trying to think your way through something is a great deal harder than anyone realizes. Your first few seconds of concentration make or break it, and I was definitely making it. The Dream was a ball of energy, an illusion surrounding our minds and keeping us there. It wasn't actually a real place like I had assumed it was in the past.
With James, I poked a hole in the fabric of the reality around us. I didn't have to take hands with everyone this time to keep control because I knew I could do it. In retrospect, that doesn't make a lick of sense. But when you're dealing with Psychic superpowers, little does.
