Robin could feel Megan reach out to Gabriel's mind. She asked him, Will you come with me?

Yes. Robin needed to see this too and he understood Megan's wariness of going into this man's mind. Together they went into Gabriel's mind. When she reached out and touched the area that should have held his memories she gasped. Whoever had done this had been very strong, but lacked any finesse. The memories had been brutally torn from his mind in an attempt to destroy them completely.

"Can you get them back?"

Megan smiled.

"The thing about minds." She touched the scarred tissue. "They have a great potential for healing themselves if given the right nudge."

A small light started in the middle of the ruined memory and spread out quickly. It expanded out until Megan, Robin, and Gabriel could the picture at the center with ease. They were standing outside Gabriel's home in Gotham. Jessie stood just outside the small picket fence, another person approached her on a bike. Robin recognized a younger version of himself. From the looks of it he was flirting outrageously with her too. All three of them could feel Gabriel's anger vibrating through his mind like a hive of angry bees. He stalked off his front porch, crossing the well manicured front lawn quickly, and leapt the small fence. He draped an arm over her shoulder and she allowed him to keep his arm there. Jessie smiled at him and she asked if he would come to the library to study with her.

"I have work," he reminded her gently, his arm slid off her shoulder and back down to his side.

She made a slight pouting face at him. Not for the first time he cursed his father's rule that he had to get a job, they were both set for life thanks to his mother's company. Robin took the moment to point out that Wayne Manor had its own library. Jessie seemed to think about it for a moment. For a brief moment Gabriel thought she would refuse him.

"Alright," she said almost reluctantly. "I'll meet you there. I want to walk Gabriel to work." Savage joy coursed through Gabriel. He eyes briefly slid to his rival, but Robin showed no signs of emotion. His triumph was quickly tempered by Robin's response.

"What kind of friend would I be if I let you walk unaccompanied all the way to my house?"

Gabriel controlled his annoyance behind a mask of indifference. It was impossible to tell whether or not Jessie saw through him or not. Together the group made their way to the small mechanic shop Gabriel was working at. Gabriel threw an arm over Jessie's shoulder again as they walked. She merely smiled at him twisting his stomach in knots. When they arrived Jessie promised to see him later then walked off with Robin.

He sighed in defeat and pulled on his overalls. Then he jacked up the pickup truck that and been brought in earlier this morning and slid underneath to see what the problem was. After a few minutes soft footsteps sounded coming through the door. He felt the slight buzz of telepathic energy and hope flared to life. He reached out with his mind as slid out from under the truck at the same time.

It wasn't Jessie.

The man looked at him with an amused and curious sort of smile, like he was inspecting an odd bug he was considering on squishing. Gabriel's mind recoiled from the foulness of the man's mind. The hoodie he wore hid a lot of his features, but Gabriel shuttered when he caught a glimpse of the man's brain pushing out of his head. Old nightmares he had long since suppressed touched the surface of his conscious mind. He couldn't remember exactly why, but he knew he feared this man, and that fear froze Gabriel where he stood.

"No, I'm not the pretty girl." His chuckled had Gabriel's veins turning to ice. "Didn't your mother teach you it's unwise to leave your mind wide open?"

For a moment Gabriel forgot his fear of this man and rage settled in its place.

"My mother's dead," he snapped.

The smile on the man's face hinted that the man already knew his mother was dead. Gabriel formed his mind's power into a lance of energy and flung it deep into the older man's mind. When he thought he had broken into the man's mind he heard a chuckle that had the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.

"Maybe you will be of use to me after all."

Gabriel growled and thrashed against the mental bars that formed around him. The sensation of the invasion was enough to bring tears to his eyes. It was nothing like when Jessie and him communicated with their minds. This was a brutal attack that reduced him to quivering mass. The man's mind ripped through his memories and mind with no regard to the damage he was doing. The man was searching for something. It took him only minutes to find the door to Jessie's mind. Gabriel threw his entire being in front of it, but was cast aside like a rag doll at the other man's power.

"Foolish girl." He opened the door to Jessie's mind and was met with a mental assault of over fifty women. The man was forced to slam the door shut. Gabriel couldn't help but laugh.

"You thought you would attack Jessie and come away unscathed? She will come soon now that she knows you are here." Gabriel could hold out until then. Jessie would be able to fix the damage done to him. The man smiled evilly at him.

"Perhaps you can help me."

"Why would I help you?"

The man chuckled again.

"Because I can give you what you want most of all."

An image of Jessie flashed before Gabriel's mind. She was smiling at him and waving from a distance. It was a simple trick, he knew it, but it still twisted his heart in knots. Gabriel snorted trying to push the doubt away.

"At this moment she is running to me, what you offer, I already have."

"Do you?" There was a smugness to the man's statement that gave Gabriel pause.

The image of Robin appeared next to Jessie's smiling figure. Robin took her hand and together they turned away from Gabriel. His heart twisted and he tried to scream after them, but his voice was stuck in his throat.

"I think your friend might have found a younger model, who is worth a bit more than you."

Gabriel tried without success to push the maniacal laughter out of his mind but it kept echoing through his very being. His own self consciousness turned on him.

Would she really abandon him for money?

No, he thought viciously back.

You sure, his own mind whispered insidiously at him. She's with him now.

She asked me to go with her.

Are you sure, The voices whispered maliciously. She will chose him.

No, he replied, but doubt was worming through him. The presence of the other mind was spreading like an infection throughout.

Finally the voice asked, Will you allow that?

No, Gabriel thought in defeat.

"What do you want?" The question was out and Gabriel got the feeling he was handing over his soul.

"Your friend is very gifted."

Gabriel felt himself falling as his voice drifted around his mind. Of course Jessie was gifted he thought to himself.

"We simply want what she can do."

"She won't give you her characters and she will fight you every step of the way." Gabriel swallowed. Somewhere in the back of his mind he recognized that Jessie had hidden this from her parents and the world for good reason. She would be furious with him if she knew he was telling a random stranger, much less this man. Regardless, the words were pulled from him.

"True, but we don't much care the state of her mind. However if you can get her power more easily we will use you. If not," he let the thought end. But already Gabriel was picturing his mother's last moments. Thrashing around clawing at her head as her power overwhelmed her. Gabriel would not allow Jessie to come to the same fate at this man's hands.

"Yes, I can."

The man smiled.

"Do we have a deal?"

Gabriel swallowed hard and nodded. He was too drained to do anything else. The man smiled like a cat about to eat a mouse.

"Then open your mind and I will tell you what you need to know."

Gabriel opened his mind fully and the man surged in taking all of the past few minutes of memory away and leaving instructions and information on its place. Then mental blocks were placed to hide the missing memories and a piece of Psimon's mind was left to keep watch over Gabriel and spread his madness to the boy.

Suddenly Gabriel was standing in the middle of the shop and he had no clue what had happened. The sound of shoes pounding on asphalt brought him out of his daze. He stuck his head around the corner and Jessie nearly collided with him. She stumbled to a stop just before him panting and out of breath. Had she run all way here from his mansion?

"Are you alright," she demanded. Her gaze traveled down him looking for injury. He felt her mind gently reach out for his. He smiled and allowed her into his mind. She still looked worried and confused.

"I am fine," he assured her.

She relaxed a little bit, but not completely. "Do you mind if I stay here and hang out for the rest of your shift? I don't want you to get in trouble or anything-."

"Not at all."

The memory ended and Megan drew Robin back to his own mind. Once they were both back in their own minds. Megan studied Gabriel a lot closer like she noticed something she hadn't before. Gabriel blinked.

"Jessie would have been safe without me. He couldn't get into her mind without me."

"Yes." The lie tasted sweet as he saw the anguish on the older boys face.