Hi~! Happy New Year! :D

Sorry this is a bit later than promised, I actually lost track of what day it was -_-" Thanks and cookies to my beta Nanaga for putting up with everything I spam her with) and also to everyone who read, reviewed, faved or alerted this fic! Hopefully this chapter will explain a few things? Please enjoy :)

Warnings: None? Slight OOC-ness? I've never written Ai before, so I don't know... I think she's supposed to be more sadistic lol Also, the timing and arrangement of events is a bit awkward and might be confusing, but it's the best I could do.

Side Notes: For the time being I'm aiming for weekly updates, at least until I run out of the chapters I've already written. Anything after that is subject to the demands of life and my ongoing battle against lethargy orz

Chapter 2: Sparks of Blue

Ai Haibara, genius scientist (evil genius sometimes fit better in Conan's opinion) turned grade-schooler, looked up from the fashion magazine she was reading and raised an eyebrow at her fellow shrunken classmate. Conan had immediately made a beeline for the couch after greeting Professor Agasa at the door, flopping down on it face first with a deep sigh.

"Kudo-kun, is there a reason you are trying to become one with the couch?" she inquired calmly, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. The detective mumbled something into the couch. "Pardon?"

Conan groaned and turned his head in order to be more coherent. "I said, I challenge you to have the same day I just did and not want to hide the minute you can. I dare you the same week." Professor Agasa came back into the room with some snacks and two mugs of hot chocolate, one of which he set down in front of the prone boy. "Thanks, Professor," Conan said gratefully, dragging himself up into a sitting position. Agasa also took a seat, only for Ai to swipe the other mug of hot chocolate out of his hands before the older man could drink it.

"You're not going to get any thinner with this. You can have juice instead," she told him. Agasa looked on mournfully as his mug joined Ai's at the other end of the coffee table, out of reach. "Kudo-kun, you were fine when I saw you at school earlier. What happened?"

"Sonoko," Conan groaned. "She came home with Ran and had heard all about her beloved Kid-sama dropping me home the other night. I couldn't get rid of her!"

There had been only so many times he could say he didn't remember any of it, that he'd fallen asleep on the roof (a slight stretching of the truth there) and woken up in his bed in the Mouri Detective Agency the next day, before he had started to wish Kid had just left him on the ground in the park, safety be damned.

That would have made Ran worry, though. She'd seen him in Kid's arms as the thief had swooped off into the night the day of the heist, and only the strict non-violent code the thief was well known for had held back (but not stopped) the intense worry for her young charge. Ran had rushed straight home and according to her, Conan had been curled up on the couch inside her father's office, a note from the thief on the table next to him:

'Tantei-kun fell asleep on the way home. Make sure he gets some rest~! - Kaitou Kid'

Considering he had fainted right in front of the thief, the note was deceptively calm. Conan supposed he should be thanking the thief for not inciting Ran's worry further. If she'd heard he'd collapsed, he would have been confined to bed for at least the next day, with a possible doctor's visit. Not that the cause of his fainting was anything a doctor could help with...

A part of him hoped he hadn't scared the thief too badly. He had a vague, hazy memory of a panicked voice calling his name before being hauled up into strong arms and a reassuring warmth. Well, Kid seemed to keep tabs on him, so if he was up to his usual tricks he'd know that Conan was fine now.

...Since when did he care if that idiot thief was worried about him, anyway? It was his fault he'd had to suffer Sonoko's fan-girling that afternoon!

"What a responsible thief we seem to have," Ai commented dryly. Conan sent her a deadpan look and seemed on the verge of a retort when Agasa interrupted.

"Shinichi-kun, do you think Kid saw the sparks before you collapsed?" he asked worriedly.

Conan rested his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I really don't have a clue. He certainly reacted and stepped back, but... I don't know, the pulse was pretty powerful, he could have been knocked back by it. He didn't seem to notice them earlier when we were with the guy on the roof." He eyed Haibara. "And before you lecture me, it just kind of burst out of my control. It wasn't on purpose. I was tired." The detective rubbed his face again wearily. "Still am, actually."

"Kudo-kun, you need to stop trying to use your power, you know it isn't supposed to work like that!" The mini scientist set her mug down with a clunk, narrowing her eyes at the detective opposite her.

"I wasn't trying to use anything, I told you it was an accident!" Conan shot back. "I can barely do anything with it anyway! Like I'd go endangering everyone around me by essentially playing with fire!" His head dropped back into his hands. "This whole thing is just - insane. I'd have a hard time believing any of it was real, except for, well, this." Blue light crackled across a casually waved hand for a split second.

"Kudo-kun," Ai said warningly.

He ignored her and continued talking. "What most people call 'magic' is supposed to be just smoke and mirrors, convincing tricks pulled off by skilled practitioners to create illusions. It is not supposed to be real, I am not supposed to have evidence it exists... and it is not supposed to be something I have!" His shoulders slumped. "And all it does is make things more complicated. As if I didn't have enough to deal with already."

Conan had never believed in magic. His was a world of facts and deductions, lies and truth, understanding and explaining mysteries - not creating more of them. Then he'd followed those two men in black at Tropical Land, and a pill named Apotoxin 4869 had forced him to rethink his entire stance on the matter.

Not that the apotoxin was anything magical: weird and freaky for being capable to literally regress someone's age by a decade, sure, but at least weird and freaky science was all it was. Haibara had explained the basics behind it to him once (although he was pretty sure she'd devolved into extensive sciencebabble by the end on purpose, possibly in revenge for something he'd said earlier) and while he didn't understand it all, it still seemed feasible. He'd adjusted to living as Conan Edogawa (to a degree that rather frightened him when he thought about it too hard) and it had been something he could deal with.

The blue sparks had appeared a few months ago, or rather, that was when they became obvious enough to draw Conan's attention. There had been signs of it building long before that - flashes of blue in the corner of his vision, getting shocked by static electricity far too much considering he knew how to stop it from happening - that he'd simply dismissed or not even noticed in the first place. Then he'd tried to stun a suspect with one of his tranquiliser darts, only to zap him instead. He'd asked Agasa when on earth the professor had installed a taser in his watch and to kindly let him know if his gadgets got updated, lest Conan end up killing someone out of ignorance.

Agasa had been exceptionally confused. No, he hadn't installed a taser at all. No, the watch wasn't supposed to do anything at all like that. What was Shinichi talking about?

The demonstration hadn't gone very well. Dart? Check. Sparks? Nothing. Conan had stared at his watch in confusion, wondering if he'd just imagined the whole thing from exhaustion. He hadn't noticed Ai was also in the room, studying him with a pensive frown on her face.

After that, he'd catch split-second glimpses of sparks in the air around him or on him, or feel tingles in his chest at random times, usually when he was feeling upset or angry. Things finally came to a head one day at school. Conan had gotten exceptionally frustrated at his whole life and his investigation (which was going nowhere) and had excused himself from the group - they were great kids, really, and they really didn't deserve him taking his frustration out on them. So luckily none of them were around to witness his shock a few minutes later when a series of azure sparks raced over his hands while he was glaring at them in irritation. He'd jumped in shock, eyes widening, but the sparks still didn't disappear. In fact, they had multiplied, until his hands were encased in a loosely woven net of lightning.

"It seems things might be more serious than I had first thought," a voice had come from behind him, doing nothing for his poor heart, which was already on the verge of a heart attack. He had looked up, panic stricken - ohgodohgod how on earth am I supposed to explain this? - only to relax a tiny fraction when he saw that it was Haibara. He was not going to think about the surprise on her face. She had to know what was going on!

"Haibara, what the hell is this?" he had demanded shrilly, thrusting both hands (and the net of sparks arcing across them) towards her. His mind had miraculously put aside the insane notion that his hands were sparking and focused on her earlier words. "What do you mean, 'more serious than you first thought'?"

"Kudo-kun, you need to calm down." Ai had remained at a wary distance, eyes focused on his hands.

"Calm down?" Conan laughed, a slight edge of panic to his voice.

"The sparks will stay there until you calm down," she told him. "So you need to get a hold of yourself. Breathe. Panicking really will not help at the moment."

Somehow the detective had calmed down and just as Ai had said, the sparks had died down as well. They'd taken most of his strength along with them, leaving his legs feeling weak and unable to support him. The mini scientist helped him over to a seat where he could sit, shaking like he'd been plunged into ice water.

"H-haibara, what w-was th-that?" Conan asked, teeth chattering. She tsk-ed and held a hand to his forehead to check his temperature, tsk-ed again and reached for his wrist, looking at her watch to time his pulse.

"I'm not sure. What happened?"

His pulse was apparently fine, judging by her slight relief. His story soon sent her expression back into a pensive frown, however. "Kudo-kun, I... need to check some things first. I would not want to give you bad data, after all. You'll most likely be feeling weak for a while; go to sick bay and rest. Come to my lab after school; I'm going to call the Professor now to come and pick me up."

"Does this have something to do with the apotoxin?" Conan had demanded. His chills were gone, but now all he wanted to do was sleep. Ai hesitated and then shrugged.

"I'll be able to tell you later. Now, rest. Or I'll make sure to stab you a few unnecessary times with the needle next time I require a blood sample," she added with a glare, seeing the shrunken detective about to open his mouth to object.

"Evil woman," she heard Conan mutter behind her as she left, but she was too preoccupied to send another death glare his way.

I had never thought I would see THAT again... Kudo-kun, just how many of Their projects do you intend to get caught up in?

.:||:.

As instructed, Conan had made his way to Professor Agasa's house after school. He'd already rung Ran from school to let her know where he'd be and by the blessing of some god up there the Shounen Tantei had decided not to accompany him to the professor's house today.

Ai was typing something up on her computer when he entered the lab and merely waved a hand towards the bed for him to take a seat. The detective had done so carefully; his legs were still feeling vaguely like jelly even after a three hour nap in sick bay. The steady clack-clack-clack of the keys as Ai typed was hypnotic and he had found himself almost drifting off again before the abrupt silence pulled him back to reality. He had looked towards the miniature scientist, only to find her looking back at him steadily, hands resting in her lap. "Haibara?"

"Kudo-kun..." she started, a strange look on her face. "I'm not entirely sure how to explain this, so I'll just say it bluntly. You have magic."

"Magic," the detective repeated flatly. She nodded.

What.

Silence stretched for a few seconds as he stared at her. "...You're joking, right?"

Ai had given him a flat look. "I am perfectly serious." She glared at him when Conan raised an eyebrow at her in a seriously-you-expect-me-to-believe-that-I-know-you're-pulling-my-leg fashion.

"Haibara, you of all people should know magic doesn't exist, right? And you're seriously trying to tell me now that I've... caught it somehow?" Conan had wondered if this was all just some huge practical joke that the diminutive scientist was trying to play on him, although it was unusually non-sadistic for her.

She sighed. "It isn't a disease, Kudo-kun. And I agree, 'magic' is perhaps not the best term for it. But it is a lot shorter than calling it 'energy manipulation', which is what it really is."

"Energy manipulation...?" Conan repeated.

"Yes. While I was working for the Organisation, I heard talk of another project that they were researching at the time. It had nothing to do with the apotoxin research at all, so I don't know much about it, but it seems that the aim of the project was to mimic a naturally-occurring phenomenon in the human genome that allowed a person to manipulate the energy of the world around them."

"So... something like telekinesis?" the detective hazarded a guess.

"Among other things. Many other things. The potential this research had was enormous, but there were a number of problems with it, one of which was that the person themselves could not control their...ability. There had to be a second, compatible person who directed the energy. Rather like a battery and a conductor, with the first person providing all the power and the second person guiding it."

"I see..." Conan frowned. "Wait, you said this was based on -?"

"Yes, on a natural occurrence. There are people born with the ability to access this kind of power, just as there are people born with the ability to direct it. Very, very few of them actually ever manage to gain access, however. A good thing for you detectives, otherwise you'd be trying to solve impossible murders all of the time," she added with an amused smile. "In any case, the name they gave to these 'batteries' was 'Contractors'. That is about all I know on the subject."

"So," the detective said slowly, thinking as he spoke, "You think I'm one of these people? A Contractor."

"It would explain the unusual events of earlier, wouldn't you say? It makes sense if you think of the blue sparks as a form of lightning - the physical manifestation of too much energy building up in one place. They seem to appear when you have a build-up of emotions, like anger, so I'm assuming that without any conscious control on your behalf they are linked to your emotions."

"Why now, though?" Conan asked. "Assuming I do somehow have this ability, and that I'm one of those 'very few' natural occurrences seeing as I'm not a part of the Black Organisation's other project... why is this only happening now, in the past year or so?" He paused, eyes sharpening. "Unless this does have something to do with the apotoxin?"

Ai drummed her fingers on the computer desk. "It's highly likely the apotoxin only acted as a trigger, nothing more. It was designed to interact with the cells of the body, not the mind. You must have had some form of latent ability and the apotoxin caused such an upheaval to your system that it 'unlocked' it, so to speak."

"Ack," was the only comment Conan made, taking off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. "This whole thing is insane. But I saw it with my own eyes, so I also can't deny the evidence... I just wish that the explanation was, I don't know, a bit more rational? I feel like I've stepped into a sci-fi movie."

"It is rational from a certain point of view," Ai pointed out. "The human brain is a vastly unexplored territory and we've yet to discover more than a tenth of what it can do. If a drug that makes us like this," she waved a hand between them, "can exist, then who can say that things like this can't?"

"Can you fix it?" Conan demanded. "I can't go around zapping people like a malfunctioning mosquito light. If I can't control it, then I'm putting everyone around me in danger. Again."

"It's not something you can 'fix', Kudo-kun," Ai replied. "The apotoxin acts like a poison to the system, so it's possible to reset the body to it's original state. This ability is your natural state, so there isn't a reset button. It might be possible to block it, but... that's not my area at all. Plus, my time is already taken up with trying to find a cure for the apotoxin. If you want me to try to 'fix' your newest problem, I won't be able to spare the time for the cure. It's your choice."

There was a long silence, which Conan had finally broken with a heavy sigh. "Stick with the cure," the shrunken detective replied wearily. "I'll figure this one out myself somehow."

.:||:.

"Kudo-kun, you're going to drop your hot chocolate."

"Shinichi-kun? Are you alright?"

Conan blinked and shook himself out of memory lane to find Professor Agasa looking worriedly at him and Haibara looking bored. "Sorry, I'm alright, I just spaced out for a few minutes there," he reassured the old man.

The professor nodded. "I'll go and get some more hot chocolate. Ai-kun, would you like some more?"

"Yes, thank you," Ai replied, holding out her mug. As the professor bustled away to his kitchen, she turned to the dark-haired boy. "You looked more like you were falling asleep," she commented dryly. Conan resisted sticking his tongue out at her and thus acting his apparent age and settled for a deadpan glare instead. She ignored it. "Contractors aren't supposed to use their own power. Every time you attempt to control it, it drains you of energy, so it's no wonder you collapsed last night with that display of yours. If you keep this up, you will kill yourself, Kudo-kun! You need to stop!"

"I need to be able to control it," Conan snapped back. "I really don't care what happens to myself, but I can't keep putting everyone around me in such danger. Conan exists because Shinichi is a danger to everyone I love. I can't let Conan become a danger too. I can't let him hurt them." His shoulders slumped and his voice dropped to an almost inaudible level. "I'll have nothing left, then."

There was an uncomfortable silence after this statement. Rather than trying to find words of comfort, Ai opted for a suggestion instead. "So why don't you find a partner?"

"A what?" Conan stared at her. She sighed.

"Really, Kudo-kun, do you listen to what I tell you? I said there were two types of people who could interact with energy fields - the power source, people like you, and those who can manipulate that power. I told you the Organisation's research was based on teams of two. Find someone who can channel your power for you and make them your partner!"

"What do you think I've been doing since then?" Conan asked, rolling his eyes. "Except I really don't know what to look for and the odds of finding someone like that are exceptionally small. There is no way I'd put Ran in that kind of danger, even if I had sensed something and Hattori..." He sighed.

"Kudo-kun?"

He shook his head. "It's just... Hattori knows. About this whole thing."

"You told him?"

"He figured it out and pressured me into explaining everything. It's part of why I was so tired yesterday. Trying to avoid interrogation and then having to explain everything to him - and demonstrate, because this is too crazy to believe without it - just took a lot out of me."

Ai hid a chuckle. "You can't seem to keep secrets from him, can you?"

"It's what happens when you have friends who are good detectives," Conan replied. "Although in his case, it's annoying. He still messes up calling me Conan and he's decided that me having 'magical powers'," he wiggled his fingers in imitation of said powers, "is too good an opportunity to miss. Even when I threatened to fry him." The detective sat back with another sigh. "But he's not... he's completely normal. I can't sense anything from him. Which pretty much kills all my options, because there's not many other people I can trust with this and there's no way I'd go into a partnership with someone I don't trust."

"You've not come across anyone?" Ai asked.

"It's a bit hard when I'm not really sure what I'm looking for," the detective commented dryly. "I've found no-one. Except..."

"Except?" Ai prompted when he didn't continue.

"I think...I felt...something," Conan said slowly, brow scrunched up in thought. "Last night, when I yelled at Kid. The pulse I sent out, there was an echo. From him. A very, very tiny echo, but I'm almost certain I felt it."

"Kid? Kaitou Kid?"

"Yeah. But I don't know!" The detective ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Maybe there's something there, maybe there's not. And even if there was, I'm not sure he'd believe me about the whole thing. He'd probably just think it's a trap."

"Isn't the more important question if you can trust him?" the scientist pointed out as Agasa returned with two mugs. It seemed the old man had decided not to risk Ai's wrath again by bringing himself some. "He is a thief after all."

Conan pondered this. He hadn't even considered the point before, which rather argued he trusted the thief unconsciously anyway... which was strangely disturbing, to say the least. But it made sense, when he thought about the fact that he'd never felt in danger in the thief's presence either. What in the many rounds of Kid's 'catch-me-if-you-can' game had sparked that?

Plus, with last night's revelation that Kid may be tangling with the Black Organisation and was in potentially just as much danger as himself (perhaps more; at least Conan didn't have people trying to kill him whenever he turned up places), there was a sense of camaraderie there that he couldn't get rid of.

So the question stood: if Kid believed him and if he could help him and if the thief was willing to help him (if the thief trusted him)... could he trust the thief to help him?

Maybe. Probably. I don't know. But those were still quite a few very, very big 'ifs' that his answer hung on. He really needed to talk to Kid. Somehow. Conan groaned.

"Well, in any case, you'll need to catch him first," Ai pointed out, sipping from her new mug of hot chocolate. "Good luck with that."

.:||:.

Chapter End
Next Chapter: To Catch A Thief

Author Rambles: Explanation chapter! Hopefully that clears some stuff up for you guys?

I apologise if it was hard to tell when everything was happening: the sort-of-not-flashback caused me a lot of grief to fit it in coherently orz Also, there is something inherently amusing to me about the image of Ai and Shinichi of all people sitting around discussing magic over hot chocolate... I should point out, there was a reason at the time of writing as to why it's Ai who knows about this and is telling Shinichi and not say, Akako (who is very much more suited to the part of discussing 'magic' but it felt kind of random to me to have her pop up now) and that reason is more than what she states here...

...is what I say, but the plot has changed since I originally wrote this chapter, so it may not be relevant any more. If it never comes up in the plot, I'll promise I'll tell you in one of these rambles to make up for it so you at least know what I was thinking :3

Also, Kaito & Kid appearances next chapter! :D