"Look at me, Erik," I demanded softly from my seat beside him in the hire car.

We had been sat on the dock, waiting for the sun to set but all the while Erik had been silent, he had not said a word ever since we checked out of the hotel, not even during the short journey down here and now he had been staring at the huge boat which sat alone in the distance with that coin revolving in between his fingers. I could feel his thoughts and anxiety floating around in the tight space of the car, they had pulled at my self-control, niggled at my resolve and after an hour I couldn't bare it any longer. He turned to face me as if I had just woken him from a dream.

"What?" he asked, half here and half somewhere else.

"What's bothering you?" I asked but he hesitated in answering me, looking back at Shaw's boat. I leant over and he looked down as I placed my hand on the one fingering the coin, "Erik? If you don't tell me I can always get it another way?" I blackmailed him teasingly, but he wasn't in the mood to play with me but he answered me all the same.

"I don't know what will happen when I get on that boat," he mused through gritted teeth, still looking at the yacht's silhouette which was rapidly fading with the light. He was talking about his anger and I could already hear the frustration in his voice. He turned to me, a tortured look in his soft blue-grey eyes, "When I see him, I don't know if I'll be able to control my anger," his voice cracked and he hung his head and the coin dropped to the car's floor, "I can't . . ."

"I'll be there," I said comfortingly as a mother would to her frightened child, smiling warmly and gently cupping his jaw.

I summoned the coin so that it hovered in the neutral space between us and he smiled uncertainly.

"Herr Doctor," I heard Erik's rumbling voice sound in greeting from the opposite side of the yacht and I took this as my entrance.

I stepped around the corner to find Shaw sat casually dressed in white, a blonde woman in a revealing white bikini and a Spanish looking man dressed in a silver suit both suddenly stood wary of the man in a black wetsuit who had just stepped in, interrupting their little party.

"No," Shaw softly ordered his henchman and woman with a joyous smile as he stood up, but they didn't drop their defenses, in fact the blonde's skin turned to sparkling diamond and I felt her thought pattern suddenly disappear, "Little Erik Lensherr," Shaw opened his arms in welcome and took a step closer to Erik as he looked around at his companions, but upon doing so his range of vision included finding me, "Ah and my tiny Evelyn,"

I was connected to Erik, tapped into his emotions and thoughts, and I suddenly felt something deep inside him ignite.

Calm Erik, he can't hurt us . . . don't do anything . . .

I gave Shaw a quick contemptuous smile.

Why can't I? He's standing right there- came Erik's hate filled reply.

Erik . . . you don't know what the other two will do, not yet, just wait-

"Playing happy families now are we, I see?" Shaw mocked, looking amusedly from me to Erik and back again I felt delight flowing from his gleeful smile.

Screw this-

Erik, No!

Suddenly Erik threw his knife towards Shaw, but the diamond blonde - who was stood beside Shaw - immediately, grabbed it, stopping it inches from it impacting with his chest. She was a telepath, I had felt her inside my head just before Erik had thrown the knife and I had lost contact with him for only a millisecond as I blocked her off from my thoughts. In my moment of lost control Erik had taken the decision to strike but she had seen what he was about to do.

But in the same moment, Erik yelled in pain and dropped to the floor clutching the sides of his face and I saw and felt that he was suddenly reliving all of the torturous experiences he had suffered while under Shaw's control.

"No!" I cried out and rushed to Erik's side, but I had hardly moved an inch when I too was rooted to the spot as the same agonizing memories were forced into my mind.

"Now, now, Emma, is that any way to treat our guests?" I heard Shaw's patronizing command as if he had spoken them at a distance and at once the horrifying images I thought I had forgotten, that had so brutally come rushing to the forefront of my mind, suddenly stopped.

My mind was a blur, I couldn't differentiate between the thoughts that were not my own as they whizzed untethered in and out of my mind, I couldn't think straight as the aftershock of the forgotten memories resonated through my consciousness. I was kneeling on the floor, unable to move against the crushing torment.

But Erik took no time to recover, as his anger overloaded his feelings and he lunged for Shaw, but the telepathic blonde hit him with such a kick that he fell over the side of the boat and into the freezing water.

I found myself unable do anything, my mind and body were overwhelmed by the amount of painful memories I had just been forced to experience again.

So the next thing I knew, I felt Shaw grab the front of my wetsuit and, with inhuman strength, he pulled me up into a standing position and I did nothing to stop him. He was looking at me with sorrowful eyes and just as he was about to say something, a flood of bright lights beamed out from somewhere behind me and his attention was momentarily directed there instead.

"Ah, finally the party's arrived," a smile widened his features and he glanced towards the Spaniard who I could not see, "Riptide?"

I didn't know what was going on, my head was buzzing, I was disoriented, and I was in no fit state to go delving into Shaw's thoughts to find out what was happening.

But then the crushing well of anguished emotions suddenly disappeared, as if someone had quickly swept them all up and discarded them out of my mind, my head was immediately clear again.

I instantly grabbed the wrist of Shaw's hand – the one that was holding me up - and sent a pulse of electricity up his arm, I knew it would not do any lasting damage, but the surprise caused him to let me go.

I twisted away from his hands and turned around to see two beams of lights emitting from a large navy coastguard vessel and the Spaniard had disappeared; all that could be seen was a small tornado flitting across the water toward the three tiny rafts coming towards us.

I stepped forwards charging my hands.

"Ah, ah, ah, not so fast Evelyn," Shaw suddenly stopped me by placing his palm against my chest and in the instant he touched me the charge in my hands burningly rushed up my arms, into my chest and out of my body via his hand.

But he didn't stop there.

Suddenly my whole body stiffened and felt static, my skin was prickling painfully as the flaming hot current was being sucked out of every pore in my body, as though millions of tiny needles had pierced my skin and directed the energy flooding towards the center of my body and congregated it to the small scorching area on my chest where Shaw's hand was extracting it through my wetsuit which was gradually burning creating a palm sized hole in the rubber on a level with my collarbones.

I couldn't breathe as the life was being slowly sucked out of me. I gasped for air but all my energy was being removed from every muscle before they had chance to respond, my lungs wouldn't work. I couldn't breathe.

I was dying.

But Shaw let me go. I feel to the floor, coughing and gasping as fresh air poured into my lungs and I watched in my weakened state as Shaw grabbed hold of the diamond woman's hand and whisked her inside the yacht. In this short time I had regained myself but my attention was drawn to movement above me.

I looked up as the yacht's gigantic anchor - trailing its heavy long chain behind it - rose in to the air from the back of the boat.

I knew instantly that Erik had survived being thrown over the side of the boat and now he was using its very own anchor to destroy it.

I watched it fall in slow motion, the surplus of water it was carrying, dropping with it in a torrent over the yacht. I would not have time to jump into the water. With the little energy I had left, I tensed for impact as the anchor came crashing down accompanied by an ominous, frightening sound of groaning steel. The air exposed into a world of splintered wood and shrapnel, I felt myself thrown through the air and I could not tell which way was up until I hit the dark icy water.

You know they're right about 13 being an unlucky number, this chapter was such a bitch to write! (sorry, excuse my french) haha, but I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it! *overload on the sarcasm* please review, I don't even care if they're bad - for this one especially - I feel like I'm Frankenstein and this is my monster - :o you see what's its done! It's forced me to think about my done and dusted english exam! grrrrrr . . . :D