Rock's heart was hammering somewhere in her throat as she sat with Jonah away from everyone else's check of the militia's corpses for any survivors. Jonah also informed Koko that they were having a private conversation and asked that they be left alone. Koko agreed, having witnessed Rock's eyes turning purple before Strength's massive metal arms shielded her from the gunfire.
"What I saw, and what I sensed both have me worried about you, Rock." Jonah sat with his arm around her shoulders, acutely aware of her panic. "It's like you lose your mind entirely.. I know we're still Lifelinked, but all I can sense from you is this... chaotic storm of emotions that don't match up with what you do or say."
"I don't... I... don't know what happens. I just see everything in shades of red and can't stop myself. I feel horrible right now... I know what happens when it goes on, but it's like I'm watching through a window or watching a video through someone else's eyes."
"That's my next part..." Jonah held her closer. "It's like you're not even there, just an empty shell."
"What happens now?" Rock was terrified that whatever this... alternate version of herself would do the next time it took her over. Would she hurt Koko? Or Jonah? What about Strength? Innocent civilians? Or worse... herself.
"We need to figure out what the hell this insanity is." Jonah replied. "But right now, we need to tell Koko that something's changing in you and we can't figure out what it is... Or what seems to cause it."
"Wouldn't that make things worse? If we told her how unpredictable this madness is..." Rock wrapped her arms around his torso, worry flashing in her eyes.
"We can't hide that fact, because of the fact it's unpredictable. It's too dangerous." Jonah gently stroked the top of her head with one hand, the other holding her against his chest. He knew she always calmed herself to sleep by listening to his often slower heartbeat than hers. Right now, it was just that; calm, slow and steady.
"I'm scared... that I might hurt someone close to me." Rock's panicked breathing was beginning to slow down, matching every third heartbeat in Jonah's chest as her racing pulse slowed to resynchronize with Jonah's soothing pulse. It was only after several seconds of resonance between them that Jonah spoke. Which was in the same calm voice that he'd been using the entire time.
"I won't let that happen. I promise."
"Have you been learning to control your connection, Hex?" Black Star Empress, seated at the desk of the master bedroom of the CIA owned safehouse that she and Black Rock Beast had been placed in under constant protection. Of course, the human woman she was Lifelinked to was leaning moodily on the wall nearby.
"All I hear from your end is humming. It gets louder when I'm closer to you." Hex replied after a brief moment of mentally focusing on her partner's energy.
"Good, you have been practicing like I told you to." Empress nodded approvingly. "I have indeed been humming to make sure you were listening."
"So you're toying with me." Hex's expression turned sour for a moment.
"I'm teaching you how to use a Lifelink without losing your focus." Empress shook her head. "I had a Lifelink once... to my husband before he died. So I know what are common traits when a Link is shared. And that also means I know how to use them all almost as soon as they are formed."
"So that's the father to your daughters." Hex commented to herself after a fairly handsome man's face flashed in her mind. She instinctively knew that Empress had done it to her through their Link. "How'd he die?"
Empress didn't reply, only smirking slightly as she replayed the memory of the bandit attack that had ended with her husband succumbing to his wounds after slaying the last of the brigands. Hex gasped loudly as she witnessed the battle, in awe of her partner's husband's battle prowess with a broadsword and a shield.
"Stop toying with me..." Hex grabbed her face with one hand, dizzy from the foreign memory invading her psyche.
"These are traits that all Lifelinks share. The sharing of one's memories is a process so simple that even Linked children can do it with minimal practice. And it's not just for mere review either. Memory is shared as a duplicate, and the one receiving also inherits what you call 'muscle memory' and any skills developed during the particular memory being shared." Empress gestured to Hex with one hand, indicating the woman's hip where she knew a gun was holstered. "Take your weapon, for example... If you presented me with all your training memories, I would be equally skilled in using the weapon, and all acquired knowledge you possess concerning it."
"And how would I 'present' you with any sort of memory?" Hex asked, staring at Empress through her fingers.
"Focus on the memory you wish to share, and if you concentrate, I can pick up on which one it is and thus receive it as my own." Empress slowly nodded her head once. "Let's start with a small memory. Something mundane or trivial."
"Like what?" Hex asked, wary.
"Since I shared a memory of my husband, how about you share one of yours?" Empress only knew of Hex's past relationship because she'd taken a look inside the woman's wallet the night before while Hex was asleep - Empress had declared that Hex stay at the safehouse with her and Beast when she wasn't working - and come across a faded, folded photograph of a smiling man.
"How did you...?" Hex knew she hadn't even hinted at her fiance to the Otherworld woman since she'd arrived in her life.
"I found the picture inside your wallet." Empress replied. "Just one memory, Hex... A name, that would be a good start."
Hex scowled at the Queen's admission to snooping through her wallet, not that she didn't already know what was inside, aside from the picture hidden behind her CIA ID badge.
"Share me a memory of his name, and I shall leave you be." Empress kept a level tone and stare to the busty black ops agent, remaining unmoving in her chair with both hands on the armrests and her legs crossed at the knee.
Hex's glare could've melted through steel, but she finally conceded defeat and focused on a very short flash of when she'd first met her fiance and he'd introduce himself.
Empress nodded to show that she'd received the few seconds of memory from Hex's perspective. "You can go now. He has such a beautiful smile."
Hex strode out of the room with a firm scowl adorning her face. Unfortunately she wasn't permitted to leave the safehouse without a legitimate reason, so she sat fuming in an armchair in the large living room, only to realize several seconds later that Black Rock Beast was laying on the couch with an amused smirk on her face.
"Aww, did she make you feel like a fool?" Beast's tone was dripping with mockery as she stared at Hex through her every present blue flaming eye. Her matching cyan crown was tilted down to cover her brow of the unlit other eye, making the sapphire blue stand out againt the pale of her skin and the brightness of the strange headgear alongside the fire.
"Your commentary isn't necessary, child." Hex snapped back, crossing her leg over her knee and resting her chin against the knuckles of her raised arm.
"No, it isn't." Beast's smile widened slightly. "Doesn't mean I won't share it anyway."
"I wasn't aware that I asked for you to do that either." Hex's scowl turned into a snarl with her teeth slightly bared.
"You didn't. I chose to share my commentary without the need for express permission." Beast replied. "Besides, what you fail to realize is that you're slowly becoming more like her. You're sitting the exact same way that she does when she's in a bad mood, y'know."
"I've always sat this way when I'm pissed off." Hex countered.
"No, you haven't." Beast sat upright and leaned her armoured forearms onto her likewise armoured knees. "You would sit like this when you were angered, or you would grind your teeth if you had nothing to say."
"And what makes you such an expert on me?" Hex demanded suddenly.
"I'm observant. Just because you've barely heard me engage in conversation doesn't mean I'm stupid. I keep an eye on everyone at all times. Including my mother, and especially you."
"Why?"
"Because I know your kind." Beast stood up to leave with a smirk. "I believe the term you humans use is a 'loose cannon'? You're not one for obeying authority, and that makes you dangerous to others... and yourself."