Feenie is meditating peaceably whilst he awaits the return of Maya – the level of serenity practically makes Dahlia sick. His trance like state makes it easier to connect with spirits – or, in the case of someone like him without all the right defensive powers, easier for spirits to connect with him.
Dahlia manages to hijack her way into his body – but is immediately incensed. This wasn't the usual system of channelling at all! There was no way to hinge her physical appearance on this travesty, and worse, his psyche had not exited for her own's replacement in the usual Kurain way. The dumb thing was just sitting there in disabled but blundering presence. Ewwwww...
Well, Feenie always was pathetic. She'd just have to make do.
###
Maya has planned an intensive training session, but she reconsiders immediately the instant she sees Phoenix. His eyes are somewhat vacant and unfocused, and when he speaks, it's unnatural and laboured, as if unpractised.
"Are you feeling okay? I don't think we should train today. You should rest." She starts back in the direction of the winding mountain path home. "We can watch some DVDs, and I'll cook you some burgers.."
"No," stammers Phoenix robotically.
Extremely firmly, he reiterates. "I want to train."
"I don't think you should..."
"Bitch!" explodes Phoenix. "Do what I say!"
"WHAAAAT?" Maya's eyes flash. "What the heck is UP WITH YOU TODAY? That's no way to speak to the Master - and that's no way to speak to ME!"
Her jaws snarl open to say more, but all words flail in confusion and a numbing punch of overriding concern. Something was j-just - off - about Nick today, though what to call it, her intuition was still fighting a murk...
She seethes through a string of pictures of her own punishments as a trainee acolyte (usually deployed by dear Aunt Morgan), the mildest being a nice disciplinary smash with the Spirit-Severing Stick which her fingers now seized aloft - but they are all displaced by one disturbing look at his slightly vacant eyes. Nick?
Fury aims a stab back. Ugh, she can't stand to look at him! She fights for a semblance of responsibility - as his mentor it's her job, her first priority, to look after him - and curtly snaps out orders for a relatively easy meditation before stalking off. The big idiot wants to train, let him train! It's not very hard, she shouldn't have to supervise. Like she hasn't put up with enough today - earlier, she caught him sprinkling some weird powder on their food, which he claimed was 'pepper', but it didn't smell like pepper - and she'd had to throw it away. How dare he - destroying perfectly good food was a crime! A-and... Her feet pound him a rhythm of audible menace, round the boulder to the furthest possible away ledge where she won't have to see him or be near him.
W-well there was no sense in staying mad. She should clear her mind with an advanced meditation.
Soon she was far, far away in a trance.
So when she was harshly jerked back to reality, she was pretty disoriented.
"NICK! LET GO OF ME!"
Nick just pushes her to the very edge of the nearby cliff-ledge. One movement and she'll fall to her death. Overpowering him and escaping isn't very likely either – while she was out of it, he's barricaded off the entire ledge with insurmountable boulders. He's wielding a katana, now jabbing the tip into her chest, directly in line with her heart. It draws a drop of blood.
His expression is still vacant, but inscrutable.
###
Those buggy little eyes! They're making me sick!
Maya Fey wasn't the brightest, but the silly thing's pupils had given weird bloated looks every time Dahlia opened Feenie's mouth. What a pain.
Her childish tantrum when she'd chewed her out for not obeying orders sure had been amusing. But Mystic Maya, Terry loved it when I talked to him like that! If she'd had her live body, it would have smirked.
Still, maybe Feenie should shut up a little more to avoid detection. Like it isn't great enough to be puppeting the little jerk anyway!
A sickening delirium oozes through her spectre at being back in control of Feenie (the one who thought he got away.) Ha...! Oooh, the irony. I could get off on *this*, Feenie. She subconsciously giggles at her sarcasm.
It's the ultimate power trip, total control of those pathetic losers who are caught in the delusion love is 'real' or something. It isn't of course, (that's why she never got any, because it doesn't exist in the first place.) Nobody cares about anything but their own agendas, her (that Kristoph's an idiot), Iris, her evil bitch mother.
That big oaf Terry actually drinking suicide under her control - she muses addiction - in that insane rant he 'loved' and 'believed' in her lie! Her stone heart swells with this ultimate victory, surely the manifestation of the height of her existence. Morgan too, was finally poisoned in her mind that day. Pity it all went downhill after that. Now they'll pay.
Feenie is still trapped in a lie. The problem is, it now seems to be her arch enemy Mia's lie. Or until the control of that little bitch Maya's delusion. All one and the same. She stings with the vengence of her personal exorcised hell. Maya - Mia - thought she'd win?
If she couldn't keep Feenie under her spell, she'd sure as her Hell not let Maya continue to manifest the same delusion over (with?) him. Her idiot little puppet would stab it apart himself - and Mia and Maya will know all about it. I win.
And then she'll get a suicide to rival Terry. Mind control? This manipulation was even better than soul replacement! As usual, Feenie's patheticness was not a curse, but a bonus of infantile exploitation. Still the same snot-nosed baby loser, aren't we, Feenie? You never really 'grew up'.
She'd thought of physical posession as a second best option, but manipulating his feeble limbs directly was even more enjoyable that she'd anticipated. Oh, his silly will flails a little resistance, but it's easily overpowered. And his every cell will be under her direction momentarily again anyway - Feenie thinks he's in looooove! - the usual weakness. And if Maya thinks he 'loves' her -that delusion and control will be kindly shattered.
A little drool slips from Feenie's mouth.
###
Despite his body being hijacked, Phoenix's consciousness is still largely sentient, and he screams to himself to stop, but his body is uncontrollable, and he has absolutely no methods to fight that spirit hijacking his body. In fact, he can't even detect that it is a spirit,- he just assumes he has somehow gone insane. How can he be killing Maya? He'll never, ever forgive himself.
Dahlia can feel Feenie's physical resistance, but it's easy to overpower, and barely slows her.
Every pounding moment slows as Maya surveys the scene. Nick would never do this, it's incomprehensible, surely?
But there isn't much time to think. Phoenix's hand is plunging the blade into Maya's chest, imminently to impale her heart...
"Nick, you're possessed!" she cries in sudden final realisation, lamely hoping he'll hear her and at least know the reason for what 'he' has done to her.
Her original charade exposed, Dahlia only momentarly cares. "So I have triumphed after all, MIA FEY!" 'Feenie' screeches for the attention and now real audience of her arch enemy, now seeing no reason to mask the possession. Who cares, Maya dying will still do as vengence enough. Feenie will still suicide (or die wanting to), and Mia will still see that Dahlia has won.
The sword is a millimetre from the fatal impalement, when suddenly Maya's organs have moved!
In light of Maya's imminent departure to the spirit world, connection had been close, and Mia had insisted on being channelled into her
The change in physical dimensions is enough to escape 'Phoenix's' clutches and fatal injury.
"I will now have my revenge, MIA FEY!" screeches Phoenix, his voice un-naturally high pitched. He's about to stab Mia, but Maya calls her back, and the blow again misses. In the confusion, Maya knocks the katana off-balance and it plunges off the cliff.
He was obviously possessed. Maya soothes her nerves by knowing that things could be righted by hitting him with the Spirit-Severing Stick, a spiritually charged object that would send spirits hurtling back to the spirit world, provided the host was knocked unconscious. It was standard procedure nowadays in the case of unruly spirits during channellings.
Maya grits her teeth and thwacks Phoenix over the head as hard as she can. He slumps briefly, eyes vacating further during his slide into unconsciousness.
But a moment later, his body jerks upright again. The Spirit-Severing Technique was designed to work in tandem with the Kurain Channelling Technique, and obviously Phoenix's powers differed too substantially for it to have proper effect. The malevolent spirit was still there, and now that Phoenix's psyche was unconscious, it was finding his body even easier to control.
Maya bulldozes her own powers past Phoenix's blunderous psyche, impeded by the resistence of the manevolent imposter. *Dahlia*. She flings away the hideous memories attached to why she can so readily ID that spirit, saving Phoenix is all she cares about now.
Seized by initiative, Maya desperately attempts to channel Dahlia out of Phoenix and into herself. Her powers were infinitely stronger than his, so hopefully it should not matter that his possession was not of the Kurain variety.
Dahlia senses her aims, and resists with every particle of her ectoplasma. It was difficult to channel her, because instead of replacing the psyche of the physical being like a normal channelling, she was obscuring herself inside it. And channelling living humans was not possible.
An inautonomous low moan of agony had begun to emit from Phoenix's body, continuing uninterrupted in the background every time 'Phoenix' spoke the garbled trash-talk.
Maya was terrified. Phoenix simply didn't have strong enough powers in the correct areas to safely permit a channelling (or possession). Judging by the physical price expended by powers he did posses in abundance, this 'channelling' was most definitely at fatal risk to his health.
Despite the practically insurmountable odds, Maya almost succeeds in tearing Dahlia's spirit out of Phoenix and into herself. Dahlia is taken aback (even Misty's powers were not capable of this feat) but rebalances herself by taunting "You know as soon as you channel me, I'll throw you off a cliff and kill you."
"I know!" growls Maya through gritted teeth. She doesn't really care, all she does care about is the fact that she doubts Phoenix's mortal body can take more than another minute of this abuse. He's slipping ever closer to eternal exit to the spirit world.
Maya herself is beginning to weaken, her training robes weighted down by the mass of blood they are soaked in, still pouring from her chest. Dahlia's resistance suddenly increases as, in a last ditch effort, a cloud of eerie butterfly-shaped objects collect around Phoenix.
Maya clutches her Magatama for support as she attempts once more to increase her powers. It's still glowing from the charge Phoenix gave it, and she is momentarily confused when it causes her to view black Psyche-Locks.
On the butterflies.
Seems poor Phoenix slightly malfunctioned the prescribed exercise.
"Are you Dahlia's familiars?" she vaguely addresses a 'butterfly'.
It's only a butterfly. Maya clutches her Magatama in a death-grip as she redirects the sum total of her will and powers into breaking that black Psyche-Lock, blind intution and her instinct to protect Nick sending her into hence-uncharted territory.
Suddenly her Magatama sparks, and the lock smashes, the butterfly exploding into blue flames and vanishing.
Phoenix emits an un-natural scream.
Maya repeats the exercise on the three remaining butterflies. She's on the verge of collapse, but though Dahlia's resistance is now weakened, she's still stubbornly impossible to channel.
Maya is on the verge of eternal departure to the spirit world herself. But with a last surge of effort, her powers capture Dahlia, at the same moment wielding the Spirit-Severing Stick in a sweeping arc destined to smash on her own head.
In the moment before she is expelled, Dahlia hurls Phoenix's tortured body off the cliff.
In the microsecond after Dahlia enters Maya, the Spirit-Severing Stick crashes down, ejecting her back to the spirit world.
A sole spectral butterfly still flits around the Devil Mark on Kristoph's hand.
NOTES: As canon in 2-4 and 3-5, a higher powered medium takes precedent in chanelling in Kurain technique - for example, when Maya calls Mia out of Pearl and into herself during 2-4 trial, Misty and Maya chanelling Dahlia in 3-5 so Pearl can't etc.