would just like to say that Author's notes will be infrequent in coming and extremely short when they do.

I try to remain open to all criticism, and I definitely want to improve my writing. Does the psychology not quite work? Does a conflict in motivation not clash hard enough? Is it flat-out confusing? Do I leave loose ends somewhere? The last one especially worries me, as I never write with an outline, but leave loose ends to improvise or tie up or use later. I had to expand this out thoroughly, and change a lot of the story to fit a set of symptoms better, and I hope I didn't leave anything out or forget anything.

I don't know if disclaimers are tradition or an actual legal necessity, but for the record, I do not own this fanfiction of a fanfiction.

* * *

PROLOUGE—The stairwell

"Well it couldn't hurt," Sawyer said, staring off into the ocean.

He leaned over a corner of two railings, staring off into the retreating ocean. The Nautilus moved slowly, creating a slight breeze in an otherwise still air. From where Skinner stood, he saw Sawyer outlined in a halo of the sun. The American seemed to be staring directly at the sun, not noticing the damaging effects on his retinas.

"I'm not going to loose what I've learned about shooting with my right hand," Sawyer said, seemed to be explaining. "I'd just be picking up a new skill. What happens if my right hand breaks in battle?"

Pause.

"Alright, I get it already. American. Gotcha."

Pause.

"Well you must know it in theory, at least, even if you're not left-handed yourself."

Skinner slowly leaned out the open door to the top deck, being careful not to make any sound or to brush against his bandaged wounds. He observed Sawyer, alone on deck, but still talking.

Now quite conspicuous with his bandage covering his burns, Skinner normally had to take extra measures to make sure that he had not been seen. Jekyll had scolded him several times for being up and moving at all, but Skinner had been watching the American out of the corner of his eye for days now, and then following him behind his back. Sawyer, once fairly observant, had noticed nothing.

Sawyer was acting erratically, and had been so increasingly since Quatermain's funeral. It was unusual for him to be almost constantly mumbling under his breath, which rapidly ceased when he noticed that anyone else had noticed him. But the strangest thing was that he seemed to be talking to none other than the great old hunter himself.

Everyone coped differently with death— Skinner knew that. So he hadn't mentioned it to anyone, and no one else had noticed. Jekyll and Mina had been too busy with their own grief and inner demons to notice, and Nemo had been busy with his ship, now fixing it up to equip a proper league.

Skinner's silence had become increasingly strained. Sawyer had also been increasingly isolated, and when he hadn't noticed others watching, he had been prone to stopping what he was doing entirely, be it walking, reading, or eating, and starting into space…once lasting about a minute. Skinner didn't carry a watch, but he had counted in his head, trying not to speed up in his own mind in his panic.

Something was wrong with Sawyer.

From below Skinner, Mina started up the stairs, not trying to be silent, but ended up catching Skinner by surprise. It was okay, though, surprise was a good way to drill a point into the head of the stubborn.

"You know you're not supposed to be walking around," Skinner heard from behind him. Just barely leaning outside of the door, Skinner whirled to face the lady doctor. Outside, Sawyer's speech had stopped, and Skinner could practically hear him listening. Skinner realized that he could either admit to having been outside, in which case Sawyer would know that he'd been spying on him, or…

"Jus' on my way up for a breath of fresh air," he managed out. "Ah, Jekyll said it would be a good idea." He could see that Mina did not believe that he would linger and stare out the door before doing so, but it didn't matter if she knew. It mattered that Sawyer didn't catch on.

"Get back to your room, you need to rest," Mina said, not fooled for a moment by his bluff. Sawyer mumbled something, and then listened again. Skinner paused, and then walked back inside, sulking down the stairs.

The stairwell remained empty for a minute. Mina was now outside, staring at the sea. Sawyer did not spare her a second glance, but his speech had stopped. Almost as soon as Skinner was out of the stairwell's sight, Jekyll briskly started up the stairs.

"Mina," Jekyll called, standing just inside the stairwell. "I very much hope that Skinner did not come out here, but have you seen him?"

"Yes, actually, he was. Upon your recommendation, so I had heard." Her face showed a glimmer of a smile. Jekyll forced a smile to conceal his exasperation with Skinner.

"He wants to die? Let him, then," Hyde crowed, bored, from the back of Jekyll's mind. He didn't understand half of Jekyll's medical jargon that was running through his head, but he did know that Jekyll had been chasing Skinner down almost since Skinner had healed enough to walk with relatively little pain. Even before that.

"So, where is he now? He didn't take off his bandages, did he?" Jekyll looked around uselessly for the invisible man.

"Not at all, I sent him back to his room."

"Thank you, Mina."

Jekyll looked over to where Sawyer was standing…still staring into the sun, or at least, into the general direction of it. Jekyll considered saying something to him, but instead nodded again at Mina and went back down the stairs, brushing against a crewman as he headed up. When the crewman reached the deck, he addressed Mina and Sawyer.

"Ship going under water," the crewman managed in broken English. "Must get in ship."

Mina nodded to show understanding, and followed the man down the stairs. Sawyer lingered as though he had not heard him at all.

"No, no practice today. Maybe tomorrow."

Pause.

"We're going under now, though."

Pause.

"Alright. Yeah, that's fine."

Sawyer glanced once more into the sun, and reflected on the approaching island directly ahead, haloed in the sunlight, as he tromped down the stairs.

* * *

For those of you thoroughly confused as to exactly whose viewpoint I'm speaking from, let me explain. I got the idea of limited omnipotence in the middle of the first chapter. What if the story wasn't told from the view of a character, or focusing on all aspects of important scenes, but from a single location, such as a one act play? Characters come and go, and in certain spaces their every emotion, thought, and motive is stripped bare for the literary world to see. I realized, later, that some thoughts and motivations needed to remain concealed for the sake of the plot, but it was nice as a writer to see into everyone's heads at once.

The first chapter is set on the stairwell. One can easily read Skinner's mind as he stands there observing Sawyer, but Sawyer's mind is still a mystery as he stares into the ocean. One catches a glimpse of Mina as she tells Skinner to go back to his room. Skinner goes down, and Mina goes outside, and for a moment, in the middle of the chapter, there is no action, as the stairwell is empty, and nothing is physically happening around it. Then Hyde's mind is clearly visible as Jekyll starts up the stairs, and is even shown reflection and forward thought. And so on.

The title of each of the future chapters will be indicative as to in what space the limited omnipotence is seeing. I tried to avoid using the same setting twice, but couldn't avoid it for several chapters. And a few of the locations were placed directly in the head of one of the characters. At this point it is told solely from the character's point of view, and only that character's minds are open to us, as standard third-person POV.

Also: thank you to Obi's Second Cousin for pointing out technical difficulties…now corrected. That's the last time I go to Yahoo answers for my research.