LUCKY THIRTEEN

Solomon picked over Nocturne with a fine-toothed comb.

Karasuma supervised the operation. The empath had never seen a Solomon assault team so suddenly keen on scouring down a location. Perhaps it was Sakaki, the fact that a hunter had betrayed the STN-J. No, strangely, Karasuma felt that wasn't true. There was an inordinate amount of preparation and organization afoot. The bustle of activity felt unnatural and unusual. The agents the empath had been speaking with before the hunt was ordered had become keen and sharp at the sound of the word "precognitive."

Even as Karasuma ran her hands over the bar, attempting to scry at anything she came in contact with, the agents frowned. Behind the bar, a group from the team was reviewing notes and paperwork from Nocturne.

"Find anything of interest?"

The agents barely looked up at her. "This is a Solomon investigation now, not a matter on concern for the STN."

xxxx

Sakaki helped that day.

The house needed work, major work. Kathain and Nycole swept and cleaned, while the men worked on more important issues. They straightened up outside and pulled heavier items out of storage, setting up the house. Kristo spent the day cleaning out his guns, prepping everyone's firearms in the event of an attack.

The next day, they remained peaceful, practicing.

Sakaki found himself searching the house for clean clothes on the third night. He'd been wearing the same fishnets and black pants for two days. He had to change.

As Haruto did, he spied something curious. Out, behind the house, the others were gathering, They stood along the outer edges of the stone sparring ring. Nycole kept to the outside, crouching at the base of a tall pine tree in the back of the house. Sakaki paused to watch in curious awe and amazement.

Even as he did, Brett made some slight gesture with his hands, practically hissing in some unwritten, dead and odd language. "Heshha es marin."

The candles flickered to life around them, casting a warm, orange glow across the ring of Raven, Bear, Geoff, Kristo, and Brent. The mellow light illuminated the features of all gathered, casting strange shadows this way and that. Sakaki had known Brett was a fire elemental. He didn't know the full extent to Brett's Craft, but the hunter could guess.

"Amazing, isn't it?" a voice called behind him.

Sakaki whirled around, blushing as he stood in the mud-room in only boxers; he ducked behind the dryer door. "Uh… yeah…" Kathain smirked, almost giggling in the doorframe. "Why aren't you out there?"

"Sorta a closed party thing, y'know? You got to be on the list to get in," she explained.

The hunter self-consciously threw on his strapped pants, still wet and heavy from the washing machine. "I guess I can see that." He tried to wring out some of the water, but the pants were just damp enough to be annoying and not really sopping. "Lemme guess, Warriors only?"

"Yup." She gave a nod and climbed up onto the dryer.

Sakaki looked away. God, what he'd given up to suddenly become a fight in a battle he didn't yet understand. He wasn't even one of the Warriors. Only Kathain and Nycole truly knew for sure who was who in this dangerous game of chess. Haruto had left the STN-J, left the safety and security of his old life behind, for a cause he didn't even fully understand or appreciate yet.

Yes, his leaving had been partially due to his own awakening, but that happened as a result of being around this group.

Haruto had even requested it.

"You don't regret coming with us, do you, Sakaki?" the red head inquired, as if reading Sakaki's mind. He knew she couldn't; it wasn't in her Craft.

The hunter threw the rest of his laundry into the dryer and cranked the knob fiercely. "I don't know." He slammed the door and grew still. "I guess I kind of asked for it, didn't I?" She made a slight, smile. "When I asked Nycole to show me the truth."

Kathain nodded, kicking her feet and thumping them against the dryer. "Sadly, yes."

The young man turned away, watching as Brett practiced his Craft under the supervision of the others. Flames danced this way and that, with a finesse and grace that Sakaki hadn't even seen in Robin. Brett was a true elemental, understand the flickering, flashing light and heat of fire. He could manipulate the world around him, bending flame to his own will with greater precision than Robin.

Kathain had a point. Sakaki had asked to know the truth; he hadn't been specific. Nycole merely attempted to give him the best possible answers the only way she knew for this particular case. She reached into Haruto to open up the locks and bolts across his mind, to allow information and energy to flow freely and fluidly. The side effect was that Haruto awoke as a witch. It happened very often when a group of witches were together. Seeds sometimes awoke out of instinct around a cluster.

In truth, it was just as much Sakaki's fault as it was anyone else's.

"Kath…"

He glanced over his shoulder just in time to watch the girl's eyes roll into the back of her head as her body went limp. Kathain fell towards the tile floor, but Sakaki was fast. His long arms shot out and caught the girl before she could hit the ground.

"Kathain!"

The girl shook her head, shaking loose of whatever had taken hold of her so quickly and clearing her mind. "Sakaki, let go of me…"

The hunter jumped back, having forgotten that Kathain's Craft was just as unstable as his. She had slipped again, into the future or past, seeing some long forgotten day or something that had yet to happen. The instant he had let her go, Kathain flew backwards, up and against the washing machine, her head slamming against the hard metal with a sickening thump. Kathain's eyes just fluttered.

"What is it?" Sakaki crawled closer, as close as he could without touching her. "What are you seeing?"

She gritted her teeth. "Pain!"

The hunter surged forward, no longer caring about what she said. His long arms wrapped around her, snaking about her fragile seeming, tiny frame. Sakaki held her close and tight, trying to comfort her, to take of her suffering, but it was not in his gifts, his Craft. Sakaki felt her heart beating against him, fast and faint. Her breathing grew ragged and shallow.

"Sakaki…." The girl could hardly speak.

The man squeezed her tighter. "Fight it, Kathain."

She stiffened suddenly before stilling all together. Her breathing normalized, and her heart rate slowed. Kathain slumped forward, deeper into Sakaki's embrace.

"Sakaki…"

He looked up, raising his voice and shouting as loud as he could. "Somebody, help!"

At first, no one came. He crouched there, alone in that tiny room, with Kathain trembling in his hold. Sakaki felt the seconds crawl along until Nycole finally burst in, hurling herself at her friend's side.

"Kathain…" Nycole placed a hand on the girl's cheek.

It didn't matter; she was too far gone.

xxxx

"Amon…."

He was in such pain, such terrible pain. He was suffering. Beaten. Bloodied, Battered. Broken. Scarlet blood trickled down from a jumble of bruises and a decent sized gash on above Amon's right temple. His dark eyes stared out lifelessly, as if Amon's very soul had been shattered and destroyed. He had been tortured, mercilessly, harmed by strangers. And all at Kathain's hands. It was all her fault.

Tears streamed down her face. "No… please… stop."

"Tell us what we want to know."

Kathain struggled, but her hands were bound behind her back with handcuffs. The metal dug into her skin, cutting her with a cold/hot burn. Sticky, warm liquid ran down from her wrists. Blood. Her own blood.

"I don't know," the girl pleaded, sobbing. "I don't know what you want."

They struck him again, severely. "Tell us."

"I can't!" Kathain shrieked out.

Amon's husky voice murmured to her from his weak lips. "Don't tell them anything… Kathain."

"I don't know what they want me to tell them!" the precognitive cried. "I don't know…. I just don't know." Kathain shook her head slowly as her body trembled in terror, fear for the stranger known as Amon, the man who had attacked Nocturne. "I don't know what they want to know. I don't know…."

"Tell us!"

xxxx

"I can't!"

Kathain screamed the words, rocketing up, gasping for air. The attack had been a hard one; Nycole felt it. She pitied Sakaki for having to watch another of the precognitive's episodes. And this one seemed worse than others. For, even as she knelt beside Kathain, Nycole saw dark bruises bloom on her arms, as if someone had been holding her. Red rings formed around her wrists, like friction burns.

Kathain lay there limped, while Brett picked up one of her hands, studying the marks. "What do you make of this?"

Geoff shrugged. "A really bad sign?"

xxxx

Mmm…. Wonderful precognitive tendencies starting to come up in characters. Should prove to be interesting in the long haul.