Disclaimer: I own none of Squares characters or situations.

I don't know when chapter thirteen will come up. Suddenly, I find myself highly unmotivated.

OUT OF THE ASHES

Chapter Twelve

The Edge of Insanity

Jane followed Ryan back into the main room, feeling a little embarrassed that Neil had seen her so close to him. But why shouldn't she take comfort from someone else? She'd been through as much as the others; she deserved it! But the look on Neil's face had made her feel guilty, though she hadn't meant anything by it, and she doubted Ryan had either.

Neil… What was wrong with him? He'd seemed to recover from what had happened to them with remarkable ease. Maybe with too much ease. Had he been faking it? Was he hiding something from them? Jane had her suspicions. It didn't seem right that both she and Ryan had come out of New York with these… changes while Neil remained normal. No, something had to be wrong with him, something that was driving him crazy. Something like –

Ryan tensed beside her, and Jane snapped into alertness. "What is it, Sarge?"

Ryan gestured toward the closest window. "The barrier. Someone's turning it on."

Jane moved closer to the window. It was true; section by section the barrier, left off now to conserve power, was flaring into life. "Phantom attack," she hissed.

"Yes," Ryan said grimly. He turned to where the Deep Eyes had stored their armor. "I'm going to help."

"So am I." Jane was eager to see just what her new abilities could do against a Phantom. She went over to Neil's cot, slapping his shoulder. "Neil! The Phantoms are attacking!"

Neil, who looked awful, Jane noticed, rolled out of the cot. "Where?" he asked groggily.

"We'll find out." She eyed him with some concern. "You really look like shit, you know that? If you're not well enough to fight…"

Neil made a face. "What, and let you and the sarge have all the fun?" His movements were jerky as he went to his own pile of armor. "I told ya, it's just a headache. Unless you don't want me around?" He gave Ryan a significant look.

Jane ignored him and concentrated on her own armor. She wondered if she should bring her Nocturne; after all, the Phantoms weren't spirits any more, and the energy weapons had had little effect on them in New York. I'll use my powers… She could feel them, at the edge of her perception, waiting. She remembered how she had hurt the big Meta with them. Maybe, with her limited but growing control, she could cause far more damage.

They frightened the people cowering in the lobby as they burst out of the elevator and rushed through the doors and out onto the streets. Chaos had erupted as people were herded towards the buildings, away from the escape pods. Years of training made the people want to get out of the city as fast as possible; they didn't realize the new, solid Phantoms would be slowed by the buildings, and hopefully stopped by the army.

They'd traded their ability to pass through objects that they'd had as ghosts to become difficult to kill with the available weapons. They were in for quite a battle, Jane thought as Ryan flagged down a troop transport.

"It's not a big incursion," the lieutenant who'd picked them up was saying. "And the barrier has made them wary. It's like they're testing us, or something."

"Tactics?" Ryan said incredulously. "They've never shown any sign of planning things out. They've always just swarmed over everything."

"Does this mean the attackers are only the small humanoid bipeds then?" Neil asked suddenly. For the first time, he seemed to be taking an interest in something besides his aching head. At the lieutenant's surprised look, Neil said, "Dr. Ross told us most of the Phantoms were just animals, right? She said the bipeds were the actual intelligent warriors. If this is an organized attack, then we should just be facing them, right?"

Jane watched Neil's face out of the corner of her eye. His deduction surprised her, though it did make sense, once she considered it. But… It didn't sound like something the technical expert would suggest.

"We'll see in a few minutes," the lieutenant said. "We're almost there."

* * *

With all that had happened, Aki had nearly forgotten the Phantoms. But, as General Ryder ordered her up to her room, they now dominated her thoughts.

Would the soldiers be able to handle the flesh and blood invaders? All they'd fought with for so long was bio-etheric weaponry. The soldiers were going to have to learn a whole new way of fighting.

Like with magic. The thought came unbidden. No. Ridiculous!

But Jane had said her ice had hurt a Meta. And the ability to heal the wounded would be extremely useful during a battle. Had the New York citizens been resurrected as warriors of Gaia? But why bring back the Phantoms as well? Had her spirit wave really done this? Had it altered the Phantoms, rather than canceling them out? Or did it have something to do with the Phantom Gaia? She and Dr. Sid had never figured out what those blue embers that had risen from it after its defeat were. They'd simply guessed they were the spirits the Phantoms had ingested over the years. But why rise heavenward, instead of drifting towards Gaia? And there'd been too many to be just the spirits of the New Yorkers…

Aki paced her room. Dammit, she hated being stuck here while the Phantoms attacked! She felt so useless. She may have been a scientist, but she was USMF trained. This went against her training. Even though General Ryder had discovered it was only a small Phantom group, easily managed, Aki still worried.

Once we've figured out the powers, something will have to be done about the Phantoms.

Suddenly, Aki couldn't stand being cooped up inside any more. She had to get out and help! Deep Eyes had, she knew, having seen them leave as she entered the building. If they could help, why couldn't she?

She yanked on her denim jacket and left the Hilton in a rush. Gray would never have stayed behind and done nothing. She didn't know what she could do, but she would help them!

* * *

The soldiers had already engaged the Phantoms when the transport carrying the Deep Eyes arrived. Vaguely, Neil noticed that he'd been right about the aliens all being the humanoid type.

Not that it mattered; they fought savagely, trapped between the powered-up barrier and the advancing soldiers. Armed mostly with Nocturnes, the soldiers weren't doing as much damage as the Phantoms, who seemed to have a weapon built into their heavy malformed arm. When they weren't strafing the armored soldiers with projectiles, tentacles lashed around, knocking soldiers to the side, sometimes hurling them a great distance.

It was indeed a small force – only about twenty Phantoms in all - but they were still devastating against the soldiers.

"I could save some of those soldiers," Ryan whispered. "If I could just get close enough…" He lifted the rifle the lieutenant had supplied him with.

"I'll cover you," Jane said.

Neil held his own weapon uncomfortably. What did they want him to do? Ever since discovering Ryan had powers, too, he and Jane seemed to be spending far more time together…

He quickly dispelled the thought. That way lay madness… he was already halfway there anyway, but he didn't want to hurry the progress.

Neil did what he always did when he wasn't piloting the ship: He followed the others into the heat of battle, fearlessly facing death at every turn. Gun at the ready, he followed Ryan as the sergeant led the way to a group of soldiers who had fallen in battle. They lieutenant who had picked them up seemed to have assumed they were acting under a higher authority's orders and let them be.

Ryan seemed to have developed an instinct for seeking out the most grievously wounded, Neil noticed with some surprise. He watched as Ryan stepped over a dead man, finding a woman who still lived under a pile of corpses. He pressed his hand to her exposed face, and there was a flash of white light. The woman had barely come to before Ryan led them away. "We can't let anyone see this yet," the sergeant said.

A Phantom sprang over an overturned car, shrieking at them angrily while bringing its arm into firing position. Neil and Ryan automatically opened fire, thought the bullets seemed to have little effect against the alien's armored hide. It wasn't until a cold wind nearly blasted Neil aside and swirled around the Phantom, encasing it in ice, that they made any real headway against the Phantom. Its frozen armor had become brittle, and Neil and Ryan made short work of it.

"Way to go, Jane!" Neil grinned, but Jane was already following Ryan onward.

They were moving rapidly, and Neil had to sprint to catch up. Before he could close the gap, another Phantom broke free from the force that had attacked it and lunged towards Neil, its tentacles cracking through the air a hairsbreadth from his helmet. "Shit!" Neil sprang backwards as the tentacles slammed into the pavement where he'd stood, cracking it on impact. "Hey, guys!" Neil called through the radio. The only response was a crackle of static.

Neil brought up his gun and fired a round before ducking and rolling to miss another assault from its tentacles. He aimed for those appendages, severing one before springing out of the way.

The Phantom screamed, withdrawing the tentacles and unleashing a salvo of bullets that Neil avoided by springing behind a lump of debris.

Shrapnel flew, and Neil flinched as it rained down on his helmet. "Hey, Sarge? Jane?" Neil tried again. Where was everyone?

Neil tried to consider his options, but his head was still muddled. The ideas that presented themselves, both his own and another's, warred within him… and Neil froze with indecision. Whose ideas was he going to listen to? His own familiar instincts, or the voice screaming for attention, for him to listen, to do something? He couldn't move, couldn't do anything as the other mind struggled for dominance. "Get out of my head!" Neil managed to scream.

Locked in this whirlwind of conflicting personalities, Neil completely missed when the Phantom stepped around the debris, its remaining tentacles poised and ready to strike.

* * *

What am I doing here? Aki wondered as she pulled her jeep to the edge of the military barricade. There were no soldiers to stop her; who in their right mind would run towards the Phantoms, after all?

She knew it was because of the reporters, who had hinted that she had brought the Phantoms back. Perhaps, if they saw her fighting, they'd realize the blame shouldn't be placed on her, or Gray, or Dr. Sid. At the very least, maybe she could convince herself…

Fighting… Right, with what? She was trained in the field as a med tech, not a warrior. She had no equipment, no weapon, nothing. But… she could pull the injured away from the battle. At least she could help somehow!

Keeping a wary eye on the fighting going on, Aki picked her way along the battlefield's edge, stopping whenever she came to a body. Surprisingly, she found no one injured.

She was debating grabbing a discarded weapon when a familiar voice howled, "Get out of my head!" Aki jerked, her gaze drawn to a single Phantom, poised to attack.

Neil! Aki reached for a weapon and fired on the Phantom's backside. Bullets whined and ricocheted off its armor, and it turned to face her, blinking at this unexpected assault.

"Neil!" Aki cried as she spotted him huddling in the shadows. "Get moving!"

Neil staggered to his feet, raising his weapon. As the Phantom, sensing the movement, whirled to face Neil, Aki sprinted to get closer. Aki grimaced and hefted the weapon into place against her shoulder again, wincing as the weapon's recoil pounded against her already sore shoulder. It's gonna be bruised tomorrow…

The Phantom halted, trapped between two threats. Aki hesitated when she met those intelligent, alien eyes. It's confused… It doesn't know why it's here, either! Behind it, Neil seemed to freeze, one gloved hand pressed to his helmeted head. The Phantoms don't understand why they woke up here instead of on their homeworld. If we could just reason with them…

The Phantom seemed to realize Aki was reluctant to attack. It focused on the closest of its prey, bringing its razor sharp tentacles down on the unmoving soldier. "No!" Aki screamed. Not another one! She raised her weapon…

About six inches short of Neil's face, the tentacles seemed to hit an invisible barrier and bounced back. The Phantom regarded this with what could have been astonishment. It slashed down at Neil again, with the same results. It screamed in frustration and whirled on Aki –

-only to fall when a flurry of ice froze its legs, shattering them as the Phantom hit the pavement.

Ryan appeared around Neil's hiding place, Jane coming up parallel to him on the other side. They quickly finished off the Phantom.

"You've gotten good at that," Aki said weakly, suddenly shaking from the shock.

"We almost didn't make it in time," Jane said. "If it hadn't been for that shield, or whatever it was, Neil would have been a goner."

"What happened back there, Neil?" Ryan asked, taking in Neil's stiff posture. Around them, the sounds of battle faded as the Phantoms were finally eliminated. "Why didn't you defend yourself?"

Neil fumbled at his helmet, ripping it off. His eyes seemed to glitter strangely. "Nothing happened," he said coldly.

"Neil," Jane began, reaching for him.

"I said nothing happened! I'm fine! Leave me alone!" Neil threw down his gun, turned, and ran.

To Be Continued…