Chandra Nalaar and Jace Beleren belong to Wizards of the Coast.

Planeswalking

Chandra Nalaar. A prodigy of fire. A fiery spirit of freedom and destruction, Chandra always had a penchant for going where she pleases, and blowing shit up. Because, let's be honest here, who doesn't like blowing shit up?

But that doesn't mean she didn't have at least a couple of guiding principles. The first being that you should leave destruction to the professionals (but Chandra's a pro, the cream of the crop, at the art of "boom"). The second being you should never sacrifice other people's personal freedoms for your own.

Which was exactly what this blue-mana mind mage happened to be doing.

"What do you want? And why are you tickling my head with your magic? Get out of my head!" Chandra struggled against her quicksilver restraints.

The mind mage remained silent.

"You're really pissing me off." More struggling. "Why won't you even say anything?" More silence. "FUCK YOU." She continued to struggle even further, but to no avail. The silvery, sinewy restraints kept her bound in place, a couple feet into the air.

Jace sighed. "I'm looking through your memories."

"You're what? You asshat, get the hell out of my head!" Chandra yelled furiously. It seemed to Chandra that the mind mage finally grimaced a little, but she was convinced he always had a permanent frown on his face anyway. She found his silence and almost complete lack of emotion infuriating.

Throughout this process, Chandra was forced to remember every memory that Jace would probe. First, it was just her whereabouts and doings form the previous few days. Then, the memories started to delve further back. Years and years of trials and tribulations came up at the forefront of her thoughts: The destruction of her home village, Gideon and the Order, The Seekers, her deceased friends and allies. And all the tragedies she endured.

And then she snapped.

"Stop it. STOP IT!"

Her red, mountainous and free mana started to spiral out of control, first manifesting by igniting her hair. The quicksilver restraints struggled to hold the fiery mage in place as fire and mana started to burn them away. The temperature of the surrounding area spiked.

The mind mage flinched. Chandra flailed her arms.

"Damn you! I hate you all!"

Jace whispered a quick word, and an oval shield of blue mana formed in front of him to protect him from the erratic fire bolting out of Chandra. The restraints had already melted by this point.

More flashes of slaughter, blood, and pain seared through Chandra's mind. Her arms spread out with balled fists while her legs took on a defensive stance. Yet amidst all of the fire and heat were tears welling up in her eyes.

Chandra screamed, louder and louder, the trees already burned to a crisp. She held her head in her hands, shaking her head, trying to stop all of the images, her eyes desperately closed to no avail.

The pure amount of red mana finally expelled Jace's probing blue mana in one final push and interrupted the spell completely. Despite his mana shield, he was still knocked back by the sheer force of Chandra's mana.

Chandra fell onto the ground with a plop. She curled up and continued to cry. Quiet sobs could be heard as she tried her best to block out all of the memories. Jace could only stare, his blank face piercing through her almost as if he was attempting his memory spell again.

It's not that the mind-mage hated the pyromancer. They had met several times in the past. Despite their completely opposite ideals of magic, he never hated or despised her. On the contrary, from the few encounters he's had with her, he actually admired her tenacity, her fiery will, and her ability to express herself (something he knows he has trouble doing, he just doesn't particularly do anything to change that). He never really got close to her, as the calculating mind-mage figured that she would be quite dangerous to be around.

But the pyromancer was burned out completely. The mind mage took a couple of cautious steps closer to her. While probing through her memories, Jace realized that the pyromancer before her had gone through more painful experiences than even the most hard-hearted he's ever seen. When no mana was seeping out of her, only tears. Jace kneeled down and carefully lifted her off the ground, truly looking at her face for the first time.

"Don't…don't look" Chandra sobbed. She was feeling embarrassed, helpless, vulnerable, exposed, and covered her face as best as she could. She was genuinely afraid. Jace continued to look, carefully noting the details of her face, her flowing hair, her skillfully crafted armor, her body. How feminine, yet how powerful he thought. His normally stoic face, for once, relaxed a little.

"You're beautiful."

The second she heard this, Chandra did not know what to say or think. Did she hear that correctly? She felt the mage put her down on the ground, but by the time she opened her eyes he had already planeswalked away to another plane.