Chapter 12

"No, no, no!"

Leia stared at him, half smiling, a bemused gleam in her eyes. After a beat, the smile fell and she stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Her gaze remained steady, calming. There were only inches between them and as he stared into her eyes, he felt the brush of her powers against his own mind. There, just outside, not prying.

"Trust me," she said quietly. "I won't let go."

It was something in the way she spoke that he found himself nodding, accepting Leia's plan. That's how he had his answer; the very reason why so many people followed Leia, seemingly into hell itself. From one base to the other across a planet.

"Fine," he said, after a long pause. "How do I fly?"

She stepped back, nodding, and held out her hand. Black energy flowed from her hand, which slithered over his shoulder and, seconds later, black wings burst from his back. Shock, and the weight of the wings, sent him staggering forward. Her hands shot out, steadying him. His eyes flew up, met hers. The world froze for a split second; as quickly as it began, it was over. She stepped back and walked around him, then stopped again in front of him.

"Some of my better work," she remarked. "I'll handle the work for today but if you like it, I can teach you how to control it. It's a little trick I've learnt."

"You can give people wings?"

"Well, I have to be around them but, in a way, yes," she said. "Ready?"

"Okay but we need to discuss the plan. You've been vague on everything up until this point but now I need to know," he replied firmly.

She nodded. "Fair enough. It's a hazard of what we do. I don't like to disclose too many details before a mission really kicks off, especially when we're dancing this close to Hysteria. The less someone knows, the safer their mind is. Most of the time."

"Most of the time?"

Leia's gaze darkened. "Hysteria does take delight in tearing minds apart. It's why I'd like to talk to you about training your mind. If this mission work becomes regular for you, if you'd agree, it's something we'd need to work on." The fire softened in her eyes. "I wouldn't stop your research. You can work on that as much as you'd like."

There it was again, that silence that lingered between them. He cleared his throat and half turned from her.

"The plan?"

"I can shield us flying in. There aren't any sensors on the roof, least there wasn't the last time I snuck in here," she said. "From there I can show the way to where my spies are likely being held. We'll need to check their computer system to get their exact cell location. We get in, move fast, get them out." She paused for a moment, something troubling occurring to her. When her gaze slid to him, it was grim. "If it comes to it, you grab them and you run. Don't wait for me."

He wanted to argue but wings rose from her back, stretched wide before him. With a hard look, she dismissed the conversation and gestured for him to follow. They stepped up to the edge of the room, then up onto the low wall. The tips of his shoes jutted over the edge. He didn't look down. He just kept telling himself that she hadn't been helping him this whole time, hadn't asked for his help, simply just to kill him now. She had put a lot of trust in him…and it was time for him to do the same.

"I've got you," she said softly.

Together, they leapt off the roof. For a split second, he was falling, then he felt it. His wings snapped out, catching the wing and he was flying forward. Each beat of his wings lifted him higher into the sky until they circled just beneath the darkening clouds, everything tiny beneath him. He lifted his gaze to Leia, whom was watching him with her dark gaze.

"You okay?" She asked, a half smile on her face.

"Yeah."

"Good. Now comes the fun part but, whatever you do, don't scream."

He had no time to reply as his wings suddenly shifted – and he was diving straight down. The wind screamed in his ears as the ground rushed to meet them. He clamped his mouth shut tightly, stifling a scream. Leia threw her hands down, black energy shooting from her hands – a bubble rapidly enveloped him and he didn't see the ground anymore. His wings shifted again and he felt his centre lurch; then his feet gently touched the ground and the darkness rushed back into Leia. She dropped her hands to her side and looked around the roof, seemingly expecting alarms to go off. When the world didn't end, she looked at him and smiled.

"You didn't scream."

"Yeah, well, might take a while for me to like the idea of flying. How is it there isn't any sensors up here?"

"Well, technically, there is," she said with a conspiratorial gleam in her eyes. "I just have people ensure that make it so it's…a little blind. It looks like it works but doesn't."

He stared at her. "You really do have people everywhere, don't you?"

"Taking Hysteria isn't a simple task and I have to ensure that when the day comes when she's gone that there are people in the right places so everything doesn't go completely to shit. Now, let's go. We don't have long till morning and I work best under the cover of darkness."

They slipped past guards with surprising efficiency; with Wally helping move her rapidly past guards, through the momentary blind spots in cameras, she felt hope kindle slowly within. When they descended the last flight of stairs and went to the door Leia sensed guards rounding the corner, just beyond the door. She grabbed Wally, held him firm as the guards neared. She slipped into their minds, watching to judge if they had any interest in using the stairs. Their footsteps neared, slowed for a fraction. Mercifully, after a few long seconds, they moved on. Leia released her grip and pushed open the door, holding it so that Wally passed through.

"How much further?"

"The control room is just up here. It's primarily automated with only a few people cycling through for routine checks. Hysteria doesn't like using too many people within the control aspect. She prefers them for security and enforcement," she explained. "Can't risk someone from the inside growing a conscience. So, anyone you do see in this facility, don't try to reason with them. Their minds have been broken down and rebuilt."

"That's…It's like that everywhere?"

She nodded as they continued up the hall. "Systematic and global mind control. That's why dismantling Hysteria's control isn't just about removing her. The effects of her power don't go away without help."

"And that's where you come into this?"

"Not just me. There are others out there, a network I've built to slowly erode her power. Bit by bit. It's not the fast route but it's made us an actual threat to her in recent years."

They approached the corner and slowed. The air around Leia darkened fractionally and thin tendrils of energy started to bleed from her, gathering at her feet like wisps of swirling smoke. She held out a hand, halting him; she rounded the corner. All he saw was her hand lift and she pointed her flattened palm outwards. The smoke around her feet darkened. A moment later he heard the door opened. Footsteps followed but Leia held her ground, even as two men walked past, their eyes glazed over. They walked right past her, then past Wally, and continued down the hall. Several feet behind him they suddenly broke into a run. When they were gone Leia turned to him, the smoke rushing back into her. She glanced at him, wary, vulnerable.

Her nature was being revealed to him, her darkness exposed. He should've been afraid – hell, the brush of fear on his mind felt more like a distant echo. Distant. He rounded the corner, looking instead to the door before them, ajar from the workers.

Leia turned sharply from him and strode into the control room. Straight in after her, he looked around the small room, the walls full monitors with a desk that encircled the room. There was no hesitation as Leia went straight to the nearest section, then twisted a card that had been left in a slot on the bench. Data flashed up on the screen before her. Leia waved her hand in patterns, dismissing lists of information, then bringing up more.

"Found them," she said, then turned to him. "We need to hurry."

He nodded and hurried with her out of the control room. The haunted look in Leia's gaze gnawed at him, though. She seemed almost afraid of finding her people, of what she might see. There was no time to waste as she led him swiftly back out the door, then down a labyrinth of halls and rooms, down another four levels by the stairs. They slipped past guards that patrolled intermittently until Leia pushed open a door, holding it open for him. Beyond it was a long-suspended walkway that stretched over a colossal room, at least several hundred feet long.

Thousands of cells filled the room, broken only by narrow pathways that divided rows of cell neatly. To his surprise, not all of the cells were filled. None, it seemed, had more than two inside. There was still at least a couple hundred people trapped beneath him. The horror of it twisted like a knife in his gut. Leia told him what happened to people at these facilities; some were moved to the mines to work until death, some to remote prisons in frigid conditions, others to be tortured or executed. None ever walked out free.

"We can't just leave them," he said softly as two guards below passed just out of ear shot.

Leia paused and glanced over her shoulder. "We don't have a choice. We don't have the resources to get them out, let alone smuggle them to safety or even hide them. It'd be death for all of them tried."

"And you said they're all going to die here," he bit back.

She stopped and turned to him fully this time. "It's for them I fight."

Then she was off moving again, as if to get the mission over and done with as fast as she could. To be away from the facility and the cells full of people that couldn't be saved. He, too, followed after her, wondering how much of himself would be chipped away before he ever saw home again. How long would be before he didn't even recognise himself in the mirror?

They'd flew down to the ground with wings, then moved swiftly through the labyrinth, past cells. Bleary-eyed prisoners looked up; at him, there was confusion but as their eyes found Leia, recognition dawned. Not hope because as she ignored them, they realised she wasn't here for them, for someone else instead. There wasn't judgement in their eyes or even anger that it wasn't their day for freedom; it was something else, the fires of rebellion in their eyes.

To them, Leia was something else. It made him realise that, outside of the quiet walls of the refuge, Leia had forged something quite powerful. A far-reaching connection, a lingering presence that he was beginning to see everywhere he went.

Leia finally stopped, drew up so sharply he nearly walked into her; he side-stepped, then stopped. In the cell before them sat two beaten figures, a man and woman. The woman was curled on the floor but she forced herself up, squinting through swollen eyes. The other sat close by her side, a hand on the small of her back, supporting her.

"You came for us," he noted with a hard edge to his voice. "Guess you didn't hear we didn't actually get a location for the lab. It was a dead end."

"Rolan,"hissed the woman weakly. "She came to save us."

Leia didn't even flinch at the accusation flung at her. She barely showed any emotion at all, so Wally couldn't even guess what she was thinking – he wanted to know, though, and that thought tugged at the edges of his mind.

"I know you didn't find anything." Leia ignored their questioning looks and fished out a small device from her bag. She set it against the control panel of their cell, then stepped back. It hummed for a second, then sparks flew across the cell door as it hissed and clicked open.

Wally raced in. The man stiffened, braced up as if to resist but Wally grabbed him, then the woman and lifted them up to their feet. He swayed for a second but found his footing, then looked to Leia. In that split second she'd turned from them, the blood drained from her face. She glanced quickly at him, worry flashing in her eyes. She tossed him a tablet, which he released the hand on the man and caught it.

"Follow that and run. Don't you dare look back."

Then, without warning, darkness erupted from Leia as she shot forward, off into the labyrinth and gunshots rang out into the warehouse.

Leia unleashed her power, tearing down the walls that kept in place. More minds fell effortlessly under her control. Fear fed in her, feeding her demons, whom roared and fed hungrily. As guards rushed out from rooms and from around corners, she lashed her talons into their mind, shredding it so that they fell to their knees, screaming. They grabbed at their minds, shutting their eyes, as if to fight the nightmares roaring in their minds. Some fought. She simply pressed harder, then continued on.

Several shadowy hounds trailed in her wake and several more ahead, like some dark procession. Even her wings were out, folded at her back. All she had to do was bring the whole attention of the facility on her, give Wally enough time to escape.

Hysteria had arrived.

The cold whisper of Hysteria's familiar power washed over Leia. As biting as ever, its thorns tugged at her mind, tearing cuts into her carefully erected walls. When she finally reached the roof, her carefully leashed power was straining. Hysteria might not be able to cause irrational panic within Leia but she was strong enough to destabilise Leia's power itself. She felt it keenly as she strode to the edge of the roof and looked down.

Staring back up at her, standing alone in the middle of the cleared loading dock, was a lone figure. There were no shadowy figures around her, like Leia, nor any physical manifestation of her power. Outwardly, they looked strange, out of place but anyone whom had lived long enough knew Hysteria. For it wasn't her look…it was her presence. The coldness that filled the air, that bit into your mind, sped up the heart until it drummed a painful beat against the ribs. It consumed everything around it, dragging it under her control.

Leia sucked in a sharp breath. Hysteria had come, though probably not under any guess of Leia's presence; that must've caused her to pause because Hysteria held her ground, looking up. Of course, there was every chance it was a trap, which meant Wally was doomed. Her two spies were doomed.

So, Leia closed her eyes. She reached for the walls she had up, then she yanked them down. A distant part of her prayed Wally wasn't watching and as she opened her eyes, her power erupted.