TOUCHING GOD

Regal.

It was the only way Robin could truly explain the pair of Oracles. Regal. Elegant. Awe inspiring. In truth, there were no words. This was true glory. Divine glory. This was the power of gods walking the earth. Gods and goddesses wrapped in human flesh and baptized by the tears of human sin.

Divinity.

Robin came so terribly close to such power with the Arcanum, but never anything like this. This was a sin. A grievous sin against nature and the very fabric of reality. No human was ever meant to bear such power, such terrible force. These two, and any of the Thirteen, really, seemed as thought they could rip the very world apart, split it in two.

"Amon…" Robin whispered.

The former hunter, her partner, glanced to her for a moment. "Just stay down."

There felt such anger, such rage and lust for vengeance in the air, thick and sickly, bearing down upon them. It felt noxious and god-awful. The feeling remained choking, suffocating and crushing.

Leanna seemed to have the upper hand, at least, physically. Her wings stretched longer, reached further, bore more thicker, more defined muscles. And, yet, they were but an illusion. Or, were they? Robin couldn't tell what was real and fake anymore. She had no idea how to properly gage such a battle. But there was the fact that the assassin still held Brett's throwing knife, stained with her own blood.

Nycole lashed out first, jumping with all her might, throwing her weight heavily at Leanna. The assassin just stepped rather neatly out of the way, her wings swooped out and fluffing back behind her. The assassin moved with the grace befitted her avian stature and nature.

Now, Leanna struck back, swatting Nycole fiercely with one of her long, white wings, knocking the empath to the ground.

It mattered not.

The physical battle was of importance. Nycole only care to distract Leanna enough to attempt to reach whatever was left of Kathain, lurking behind that dark exterior. She reached out with her mind, feeling and seeing the twinkling lights of thousands. Those lights flickered and sparkling against the black void where no consciousness remained. And, yet, there remained no Kathain. No sparkle, no dot of light where Leanna moved.

It haunted Nycole strangely.

Leanna lurched right, allowing a sharp lean to carry her body into motion, slashing the knife through the air, just barely missing Nycole.

Flames leapt out from nowhere, burning and racing towards Leanna. The assassin jumped and bent, contorting her body around the fire. The orange, blazing flames licked across her, dancing over her flesh. Leanna welcomed the energy, knowing exactly from who it stemmed and knowingly exactly how it would flare around her. All she needed do was move with the energy.

Robin watched the trail of energy, of Craft race back into the shadows, to Brett. The fire elemental stood at the ready, a ball of flame held in his hand. His dark hair had fallen over his stormy blue eyes, angry and bitter.

"Never ever hit her again."

Leanna fluffed her wings up suddenly, riding the flow back, alighting just a foot or two and gliding back, away from the elemental, but Brett stepped in towards her. His fists flew through the air. And, somehow, Leanna, Kathain, whoever she was, managed to avoid each and every blow.

It made sense, Nycole realized.

You couldn't battle Kathain, or any precognitive for that matter, using any matter of physical attack. In truth, even with attack, both metaphysical and physical, stood an equal chance of ruin at the hands of her. She could see any move of aggression against her and know exactly how to counter it.

Nycole reached out with her mind, snapping back at the void.

In truth, that was all Leanna was. Even as the assassin struck at Brett with her wings and her fists, hitting him sharply and soundly, Nycole saw the truth. Behind those fists, behind those wings and that warrior exterior, lay nothingness. There was nothing, just formless, shapeless, nothingness to Kathain. That was what bred Leanna. Void.

Leanna was perfect absence of emotions.

And Nycole? Nycole was an empath. And all empaths were the exact opposite of Leanna. They were filled with emotion, the feelings thoughts and pure souls of everyone, every living thing around them. Perfect Void and Perfect Soul. They were opposing forces to the universe, absolute in every aspect of the words.

Nycole lipped her lips in satisfaction. What else would two opposing forces do but cancel one another out? There was no other way, no other chance.

Even as the thought flickered into existence, flaring against her despair and hopelessness, Geoff threw his lot into the battle, allowing that startling crescendo of energy to come racing, cascading down. It splashed over them, a wave of pure electricity and life. The wave rushed through them, but only Leanna seemed unaffected, unaltered by it. She just whirled and struck back, with her fist. Geoff only just barely missed being slugged clean in the jaw.

The situation was too volatile.

Amon realized this too late, as Bear and Raven threw in their lot. He couldn't take this much longer, watching them continue without a conscious plan of action. The hunter had to take down Kathain, to control her and keep her from harm.

Hunting the void. Chasing nothingness.

He leapt at her.

Nycole hungered at the emotion, at the pure essence of life and everything. She drew it in and around her, wrapping it about her form. The empath waited for all of it to build, damming up the emotions the hundreds of thousands of Washington citizens within her.

Leanna growled. Actually growled. It was a feral sound, dark and ravenous, lusting for blood. Amon's blood. The girl whirled about with that sound, snarling with all the fierceness of a jungle cat. Amon's strong arm shot out.

Brett. Angry, Hotheaded.

For a moment in time and space, Leanna's eyes seemed to soften, gazing out at him.

Amon. Afraid, worried. Concerned for Kathain, lost somewhere within that shell of a human that was Leanna.

That briefest of moments of hesitation cost the assassin dearly. Amon managed to snag a hold of her wrist, locking his hand sharply around it and jerking her close to him. Leanna let out a breath with the swiftness of the motion, feeling her arm almost ripped from her socket by the sheer force of Amon's. She tried to pull away, but Amon just held tight, digging in with his heels into the ground, holding against her pulls. Leanna tugged fiercely against him.

Sakaki. Losing control. Desire to act. Yearning to stop everything that was happening around him.

Sure enough, the young, former hunter jumped into the fight with Amon, reaching out and clawing at the air for Leanna's other wrist. But the girl managed to buck and twist away from the man. His every attempt was evaded, but, somehow, Amon managed to retain his hold on the girl.

Robin. Alone. Out of place. Confused. Conflicted.

That last one startled Nycole. Robin had always seemed so adjusted, so used to everything that was happening around her. And, yet, these emotions, true and direct from her own heart and soul, betrayed the teenager. Robin was strong, yes, but she was confused. Her mind had been clouded by her time with the Thirteen, by the secrecy around them all.

"Kathain!" Amon begged of her, pleading for what lingered within to stop, to cease her struggles. "Listen to me…."

Leanna shook her head, loosening her hair with a trembling fall of copper locks. "No."

And Nycole's own fear and trepidation added to the mix.

The telepath built everything up within her.

Leanna shirked hard to the side, but Amon remained with her the entire time. Brett swung around with a seemly harsh blow directed to the head, but the assassin slammed the other way, directly back towards Amon. Her eyes widened for a moment, as Leanna paused, already seeing the error of her actions. The former hunter took this to his advantage, hurling his body into hers and pinning Leanna to the ground.

"Get off of me," the assassin ordered through clenched teeth.

Amon shook his head slowly, sadly, as the girl writhed beneath him, as her wings stretched, trying desperately to throw Amon from off of her. "No."

"Yes…" She snarled bitterly.

Again, the usually solemn man replied with casual ferocity. "No."

Nycole took her chance. She rushed up, scrambling and tripping to Amon's side, to the tackled form of Leanna. The telepath rallied all of the emotions she had collected, pooling the pure energy around her hands. Nycole took a deep breath and placed her fingertips to Leanna's forehead. With a tremendous push, the empath forced everything she could feel, everything anyone could ever feel, down and through her arm, through her fingertips, and into Leanna.

Sakaki felt sick as he watched. Leanna arched her back out as the emotions flooded into her. The girl's eyes rolled back into her head, as her mouth opened with a silent scream. But, there were no tears, no shrieks. Nothing.

Nycole, however, jerked back, suddenly, falling.

"Nycole!"

xxxx

Such fear.

"Zaizen!"

Kathain's voice. She sounded so frightened, so horrifically terrified of the man, her entire body wracked with the terror of an uncertain fate.

His hand fell upon her hair, stroking the copper locks. Nycole could almost feel it. She could feel the weight of his hand, moving over her own scalp. The heat of his body brushed over hers, as though Nycole were in Kathain's position, strapped there, hanging upside down. In truth, for how much those leather cuffs cut into Kathain's wrists and ankles, they burnt at Nycole's. The empath could ever feel the strange contraption holding her friend's head in place.

Kathain's heartbeats echoed in Nycole's mind. The empath couldn't hear anymore, couldn't bear to listen. She begged for the vision to stop, for the memory to just end. She watched in horror, crying, sobbing, and pleading the entire time.

"Kathain…" Nycole whimpered.

She watched as the steam rose up and off of Kathain, followed by a shriek of pure agony, of perfect suffering and sorrow. The scent of burning flesh stung at Nycole, an acrid, disgusting smell that turned the telepath's stomach. Kathain's burning flesh. With a sizzle and a mild plume of smoke rising from the base of her skull, they burned deeper and deeper. Each passing probe and touch sent a new scream piercing the air. To Nycole's utter horror, she realized then, that they had kept Kathain fully conscious and without any painkillers for the entire ordeal. They burnt out the very essence of Kathain with as little regard as one would brand a cow.

"I'm so sorry, Kathain."

But there was nnothing Nycole could do."

xxxx

"Let her up."

Sakaki jumped at the words; everyone else froze.

Robin just looked away. She would no longer watch, no longer be a part of this, none of this. Never again. This was not her world and not her fight.

Amon shook his head. "No. I can't."

Nycole put a hand on his shoulder, reassuring and comforting. "You have to."

"No."

"Amon…." The empath breathed.

The former hunter shrugged and eased his weight from off of Leanna, stepping back with his shoulders hunched, his head hung low. Surprisingly, however, the assassin did not run. Instead, the girl just stabbed the throwing knife from Brett into the ground, blade side down.

Leanna glanced upwards. "Thank-you."

But, somehow, Leanna didn't really sound grateful, and Nycole knew why. Along with her memories, with everything that was Kathain, Zaizen burnt out her emotions, eradicated anything that would stand against him, anything that was weak or human about her. Zaizen made his perfect little weapon, the weapon he couldn't get from Robin.

Leanna rose to leave, but Brett stepped into her path.

"You're not going anywhere, Kathain."

xxxx

Oh, nos.