AN: I am so sorry for taking so long. I had zero inspiration and a couple of not-so-good months which combined to sap all inspiration except for a small period of time during NaNo. But without further ado, let's jump back into this.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my Ocs.
Ray entered Lisa's room to check on her and stopped dead in the doorway.
"Kaiba, what are you doing... here..." Ray had glanced towards the room Kaiba was using and saw that, despite being right in front of him, he was asleep in the guest room.
"I was hoping Lisa could tell me. Since as you noticed, I'm strangely in two places at once."
Ray sighed, realizing just what had happened. "The highest plane for telepaths is the ability to astral project. I thought Tom taught you this." Not giving the CEO a chance to answer, he walked over to a mirror and focused on it. Despite himself, Kaiba was fascinated with how the surface of the mirror warped as Ray focused his psychic powers onto it. When the mirror's surface stilled, he recognized Tom on the other side of it, the walls of the school Lisa had shown him just visible.
"Tom, I thought you said you taught Kaiba everything he needed to know about telepathy?"
"I did."
"Then why didn't he know about astral projection?"
"I never said he paid attention." Kaiba blinked in surprise as Tom, who started his sentence in the school finished in the room with them. "What, is he stuck, or something?"
"If you're asking if I know how to return to my body, no, I don't."
"Well that's easy. Astral projection, despite the common belief of it being your soul that's being projected, is really just your consciousness. So all you have to do is focus on your body, and you'll be right back inside it." Tom watched Kaiba try, and then fail to return to his body.
"Hm..." Glancing over at Lisa, he continued speaking. "Maybe simply focusing is too complex right now. The first few projections are always the hardest. Try walking back to your body, and then picturing a doorway back inside that you can walk through." Again, Tom watched, growing more and more concerned, as Kaiba tried and failed to return to his body.
"Well, this is certainly a problem. Sure, telepaths can astral project indefinitely – at least as long as their bodies are safe – but I've never heard of someone being unable to return."
"What did you mean by 'as long as their bodies are safe'?" Ray asked.
"Well, like I said, astral projection is a telepath projecting his consciousness outside of himself. In older days, it's said that kings used the power of telepaths to spy on their enemies since only psychics could see the astral projections, but I digress. His consciousness is still attached to his body, but completely unable to act in self-defense. With no consciousness to direct it, a telepath's body simply lays or sits somewhere, seemingly asleep. A telepath is never more vulnerable than when astral projecting. If Kaiba's body is harmed, and he can't return to it, there's nothing he can do to keep himself safe." Seeing Ray start to ask a question, he shook his head.
"I know what you're thinking, Ray, and it won't work. Attacking Kaiba won't force him to return to his body, it doesn't work like that. He has to consciously return to it.
"By the way, is Lisa okay? Everyone at the school is talking about the card-speaker's attempt to restore the barrier, whatever that means. The few card-speakers that aren't in their rooms are walking around like zombies. And Amy was talking about how you passed out when Lisa vanished from the plains."
Briefly, Ray explained what was wrong with his sister, and how Kaiba had very likely saved her life by bringing her to the plains for Wingweaver to heal. During the explanation, understanding showed in Tom's expression, as well as concern for Lisa, whom he was very good friends with. Glancing at Kaiba, he did a cursory scan of the CEO's mind, much to Kaiba's irritation.
"I see." He laughed slightly. "Looks like all the rumors about you being completely heartless are ill-founded. You can't return to your body because you're worried about Lisa. It was probably that worry that caused you to project in the first place. If a telepath is astral projecting but has something else, anything else, too strongly on his mind, than it's impossible for him to return to his body. It's not difficult to stop projecting, but it does require complete focus, just like anything involving the planes." Glancing over at Kaiba's real body, his brow furrowed in worry. After the ordeal that he had likely gone through to bring Lisa to the first plane, he needed to completely rest just as much as Lisa did. Astral projecting in this state, while not immediately harmful, could have negative affects on his health.
"I don't like it, but I don't think I have much choice in the matter. I'm going to have to risk it," he muttered under his breath. Glancing at Kaiba's real body, he focused on it, forging a telepathic connection. Ray let out a surprised exclamation as Kaiba's astral projection vanished from the room, and Tom breathed a sigh of relief.
"There's never any guarantee of that working. It's possible for one telepath to force another's projection to return to his body, but it's difficult, and extremely risky. I got incredibly lucky that it worked without any complications. Connecting to a projecting telepath telepathically runs a very high risk of both telepaths getting stuck in the planes." After doing a brief scan of Lisa's mind to reassure himself that, yes, she was okay, he turned back to the mirror to leave, asking Ray to reopen the connection to the school.
Before Ray had a chance to focus back onto the mirror, however, it started warping. When the surface cleared, a girl with long, curly dark auburn hair and blue eyes with gold flecks in them appeared, Amy just visible behind her as she was the one who had formed the connection.
"Joan. What's wrong?" Joan Saunders, like Anna, was primary foresight, though Ray suspected that Joan was the stronger of the two.
"I need to speak to the card-speakers."
"You can't. They're asleep, and I don't know for sure when they'll wake up. Just tell me the message and I'll make sure they get it," Ray said. Joan narrowed her eyes in irritation, but Ray also noticed the shadow of what looked like fear. Finally, she nodded her head, accepting the fact that there was nothing she could do about Kaiba and Lisa's state of consciousness and knowing that the message had to be relayed immediately. She just hoped that they would wake up in time to hear it.
"Very well, Ray. The message is this: Soon."
"Soon? What's soon? How soon is it?"
"I've said all I can. Make sure that they get the message." With that, Joan walked off, and before Amy had time to close the connection, Tom teleported through.
Walking over to Lisa's bedside table, Ray went through her deck until he found the card he was looking for. Using the card as a focus, he piggy-backed off of Lisa's primary skill and entered the first plane of the card-speakers, asking the Pyschic Kappa what was soon.
He pulled out after only a few minutes when the Kappa refused to answer. Of all of Lisa's cards, that one was the most likely to talk to him when he dipped into the first plane of the cards. If that card was refusing to speak with him, then he knew that there was no point in trying to ask any of her other cards.
"I wish that Lisa or Amy had told me what it was they were doing with the barrier." He glanced over at his sister worriedly. "Please wake up soon, Lisa. If Joan was rattled enough that it was visible, then whatever it was you were doing with the barrier is going to be worse than you let on."
AN: Joan Saunders belongs to K5Rakitan, who is in the story as an OC as a thank-you for being the only person to review every single chapter. I hope I did your character justice, and I'll try to work her into other chapters in the future. And for the sake of shameless advertising, if any of you are also on fictionpress, I have a story in progress there under the same account name as this one. Check it out if y'all are so inclined.