Chapter 15

She stretched her arms out as far as they would go, leant her head back and closed her eyes. Her whole body was tingling with the strangest of sensations. She wasn't sure if she liked it or not, but she had a good idea what it all meant.

'The games about to start.'

'I know,' the redhead's voice was wonderfully calm, 'are you ready for this?'

'Yes, yes I am,' she lowered her arms and turned towards the redhead, 'I don't think I've been more ready for anything in my whole life.'

'Good, then shall I let the challengers know we're ready for them?'

'Yes,' a huge grin pulled across her face, 'and let them know I will be watching them. If any of them even think about cheating...'

'Cheating in this game would be pretty hard, the Master made sure of that when he knew he would be using them.'

'I know, but a little warning doesn't hurt, right? Right now they know what's going on, the players don't; it does not benefit us to have that dynamic change.'

'Oh, I see, and here I thought you were worried about...'

'No, the Master has them in line, but this game is supposed to challenge our players and I will not have that ruined.'

'I understand,' the redhead smirked. 'The game will begin soon.'

'I know,' she turned her gaze towards the horizon, 'and it's going to be so much fun.'

His head felt heavy and muggy, with the dull ache of a headache pulsing through it. He gave a heavy sigh and half opened his eyes. Crying took a lot out of him and it wasn't unusual for him to literally pass out from exhaustion whilst sat at Téa's bedside. It was something which made him feel incredibly guilty every single time, but he was slowly accepting the fact it was what his body needed.

It took a few moments for him to realise something wasn't right. When he did he instantly shot into a sitting position. Everything around him looked weird, like he'd been drugged or something. The air moved and wavered and shimmered in a way which made him feel sick and increased the feeling of pain walled up inside his head. To make matters worse he was no longer in Téa's hospital room, but instead in some wide open field in the middle of nowhere.

'Where... where am I?' He shook his head in wonder as he carefully pulled himself to his feet. 'What... what's going on?'

He slowly turned a tight circle in order to examine his surroundings. As he did several weird noises picked their way through his ears. There were as uncomfortable to hear as they were indescribable. For a few moments he pressed his hands against his ears and squeezed his eyes shut, willing everything to be normal again. It didn't work. Sighing heavily his hands automatically reached for the puzzle shaped pendent which should have been round his neck. It was gone and it took him a moment to remember he'd given it away to Téa.

'Great,' he gritted his teeth as the noises he was hearing died away for a moment, 'I really am alone. Well there's not much point in staying around here.'

He closed his eyes and willed himself back to Téa's side. It didn't work. Undeterred he tried again and then a third time, before finally admitting to himself that his powers were down.

'Great, just great,' his head surged and swayed with the instability of his vision, 'what am I supposed to do now?'

'Jay, Jay,' a familiar voice sounded gently, 'wake up Jay, come on.'

'Ugh, my head hurts,' he groaned loudly as he opened his eyes. 'Where am I?'

'Who knows,' Ahna gave a heavy sigh, 'and you're the first person I've seen since I arrived here.'

'Well at least you're safe,' Jay crammed his hands against the side of his head as he sat up, 'you don't happen to have any aspirin on you, do you?'

'Okay, for a start you and I both know pain killers have no affect on the dead,' Ahna rolled her eyes, 'for a second that headache you have now will probably pass soon enough. Mine did.'

'There's no need to be so cold Ahna,' he shot her a look as his tongue glanced over his lips, 'and if you're not gonna help me kill my pain, could you at least help me to my feet?'

'Lazy much?'

'Do you even need to ask?' His tongue glanced over his lips again. 'So you gonna help me up or what?'

'Sure,' she reached a hand down towards him.

'Thanks,' taking her hand, he allowed her to pull him to his feet. 'So do you know what happened to Covo?'

'You did hear me say you were the first person I've seen since arriving here, right?' Ahna cocked an eyebrow. 'That includes my currently less than better other half.'

'Yeah,' he licked his lips, 'sorry.'

'So what do you think we should do?' She folded her arms. 'I mean, I was looking for Covo, but if you have a better plan...'

'No, looking for Covo's fine, but we probably could include the others into our search.'

'Others?'

'You didn't think I was alone, did you?'

'I guess not,' she sighed again. 'So which way do we go?'

'Does it matter?'

'Well, there's a pretty interesting looking henge about half a mile or so that way,' Ahna pointed, 'I actually ended up staying there last night. Most of today too, thanks to all the damn rain this place seems to get.'

'Sounds to me like it'll probably make a good base camp then,' Jay licked his lips for the third or fourth time in as many minutes.

'That's what I was thinking,' Ahna's face filled with a curious frown. 'Have you been spending too much time around SK or something?'

'Huh?'

'You keep licking your lips, you never do that.'

'I what?' Even as he said it Jay could feel his tongue glancing over his lips again.

'You keep licking your lips, seriously.'

'Great,' he rolled his eyes, 'if we ever find the guy, remind me to stop hanging out with him.'

'As if you have a choice.'

'Don't remind me,' he sighed. 'So are we gonna head towards this base camp of yours or what?'

'Of course.' She grinned. 'Follow me.'

A shrill scream cut clean across the air, causing him to wake up with a start. Ignoring his pounding headache and without taking the time to examine his unfamiliar surroundings, he leapt to his feet and headed in the direction of the scream. To his amazement, the source of the scream turned out to be a very scared, very un-pregnant looking Mai.

'SK,' her eyes were wide with fear, 'someone's stolen my baby!'

'I... I don't...' his own eyes bulged, 'how...?'

'How the hell should I know?'

'This... this is bad.'

'Tell me something I don't know.'

'We've got to find the others.'

'What good is that going to do?'

'Well it'll give us more minds to figure this thing out for a start,' SK tried to keep his voice as calm and level as possible.

'I don't want to figure this thing out,' Mai sounded almost hysterical, 'I just want my baby back.'

'I know, but I don't know what else to do. It's not like you can mount a search party for a missing foetus.'

'Oh god,' she buried her face in her hands.

Unable to do anything else, SK wrapped his arms around Mai and held her as she broke down into floods of tears.

'Don't worry,' he tried to sound more confident and comforting than he felt, 'first we'll find Joey and the others and then we'll find your baby, I promise.'

'No,' she moaned, 'I want my baby back now.'

'I... I know, but I… I can't do that,' he gently stroked her hair. 'I wish I could Mai, really I do, but I can't,' he tightened his grip around her. 'We have to find Joey. He'll know what to do.'

'Really?' Mai sniffed, pulling away from him.

'Of course,' he forced a smile, 'he is the First's host after all and it is his kid too.'

'Oh Joey,' she squeezed her eyes shut, 'I'm so sorry.'

'Come on,' he gave her a gently nudge, 'I'll see if I can take you to him.'

'Please.'

'Alright then.'

Taking a deep breath, he attempted to Jump them both to Joey. He already knew it wasn't going to be easy; after all he had no idea where the guy was, but for some reason his powers didn't seem to want to work.

'So are you going to take me to him or not?' Mai voice trembled tearfully after they'd been stood there for a few minutes.

'I'm trying,' SK frowned, 'I don't get why my powers aren't working.'

'Maybe I should try.'

'Huh?'

'I... I know I'm not the best at Jumping, but I can do it. And... and I'm more connected to Joey than you are, so...'

'Are you sure you should, I mean…' suddenly his eyes caught sight of something on the underside of his right wrist. 'What the…?'

'SK?'

'Mai, please tell me what you think this is,' he held his arm up for her.

'Why it looks like…' she froze. 'I think we know now why you're powers are down.'

'Yeah,' SK's whole head felt numb as he slowly began to nod, 'so I guess we don't have a choice here, we're going to have to rely on your ability to Jump.'