Imperium: Volume 2
Chapter 17

I positioned my self on the top floor of the mall, which allowed me to over look the ground floor. The place was buzzing with people, and I opened up my channels to listen in. As long as I paced myself, I shouldn't run into the same issue I had last time.

2 days........I gave myself 2 days to replace them. I knew I couldn't replace anything last time, but this time, I felt more confident. I had to replace them. It wasnt a question of if or how, but a question of when. We had less then 12 days to figure this out. If I could replace the leak, then we could send Raeve to warn home base.

Just as the notion went through my head I saw June dragging Raeve towards the entrance. I could tell Raeve had no clue what she wanted, but her determination was what I needed. It further implemented my sole mission.

Find the leak.

Meanwhile........Raeve's P.O.V.

"June....what are we doing here?" She had brought me to the middle of nowhere again.

She let go of my hand, meaning she felt like this was a good enough place as any. She turned around facing me. I had no clue what was happening. We were just in our room, trying to calm her thoughts when she suddenly grabbed my hand and dragged me out here.

"I need you to teleport me." She said bluntly.

I just looked at her stumped. "You want me to what?"

"If Sarah can't replace the leak in 2 days, we need to have another plan to get everyone out at a moment's notice. Please Raeve, you need to do this." The look on her face was..............painful.

"I........I can't June.....Im sorry. I've never been able to extend it further than myself. I would if I could, but I can't." I told her.

She didn't like my answer, but the look on her face was one of hope. "I have an idea. I just need you to be open to it." She said.

I looked into her eyes. She was determined, and awaiting my answer.

"K. Give it to me." I told her.

"Ok..." She took a breath to calm herself. "Remember you said, you could feel my energy pass into you when we.....I nodded. What if we were to do the same thing and boost up your ability."

I understood fully what she was saying. "You mean give me some of your surge." I stated.

"Yes. You said it felt powerful. What if it like.....supercharged you in a way, where it allowed you to transport others?"

I was pondering it. "Jesus June.......this could work. K.....lets give it a shot. Should we get naked and do it right here?" She hit me in the arm.

"This isn't the time Raeve." She was right, I was just trying to lighten the mood.

"Ok, I'm just going to start off with a little bit, and see where we go from there." She said.

"Ok.....lets do this." I replied.

Sarah's P.O.V.

It's been hours and still nothing! I was over my head in thinking I could figure this out in 2 days. Ive spent a majority of my day walking up and down the entirety of the mall and nothing. Ive had a sea of thoughts make there way through my mind and again I picked up frig all.

It was close to the evening and I found myself in the closet again, trying to calm the voices in my head. I tried isolating each voice one by one to try and pinpoint it that way. It was going to take longer, but I wasn't going to stop till I found them.

June and Raeve's P.O.V

"June, we've been at this for hours." I couldn't tell you how many attempts we've tried.

Her determination was astounding.

"Ahh! This is so frustrating!" She was pacing back and forth, and I could see her mind thinking of every rational explanation as to why it wasn't working.

"Maybe we aren't doing it right." She said. The hope that filled her eyes earlier was slowly starting to fade.

"Babe, were not going to give up. Even if we have to do this till the sun comes up, we won't stop. It'll work." I went to her and pulled her closer to me holding her up against me.

"How do you know?" She asked. Her words were full of uncertainty.

"Because it has too." I lifted her chin and put my lips to hers. I felt the tension leave her body, as she pushed into me. Watching June and holding her were two different things, but when she was against me, my mind would solely focus on her and her alone.

I pulled away to let us catch our breath, as it was starting to get heated.

"June."

"Just shut up Raeve and keep kissing me." She said before crashing back into my lips. Her lips to mine, was all I ever craved, and when her tongue danced with mine it almost put me over the edge.

Suddenly I could feel her energy. She was transferring into me, allowing it to flow through my body. It was powerful. She pulled back and I opened my eyes to see hers glowing. The usual colours of energy were flowing around us, however the bluish and pinkish hues that usually came with it were now orange. Like the sun's rays.

"Whoa." She said as her head moved back.

"What? What is it? Oh my god....did you fuck up my face?" I asked.

"No.....your eyes........their glowing. How do you feel?" She asked.

"I feel ....really good actually."

She kissed me one last time before placing my arms behind her back. She pulled away before saying one last request.

"Now take me somewhere."

I grinned, and then we vanished.

Sarah's P.O.V.

I kept myself in the closet, continuing on isolating the voices when suddenly my sense of Raeve and June disappeared.

They did it. And if they could reach the impossible so could I. Now more then ever, I can't give up.

I looked at my watch and it read 7:14 pm. I decided to give myself a break and made my way towards the cafeteria outlet, and made sure to pass the infirmary to see Rowen. He looked pretty busy but seemed to be holding his own, even with one hand. I popped in quickly to see how he was doing.

"Hey Rowen."

He turned to me. He looked tired but still had a smile on his face.

"Hey Sare, how you holding up?"

"I'm ok, starving though. I wanted to see if you had eaten yet." I asked him.

"That actually sounds really good. It's going to be a long night, and I could use a break." I said.

"Okay, well how about I go grab us some grub and we can eat it together." I stated.

"Can't wait."

I made my way over to the outlet and loaded up a tray with an assortment of options. I even saw they managed to make some strawberry shortcake tarts which was an absolute treat! I hadn't had a desert in months, so I loaded a few of those on there aswell with a couple of beverages.

When I got back to the infirmary Rowen had us set up in a room with two chairs on either side of the bed, where I placed the tray.

"Is that desert?" He spotted the tarts on the tray.

"I know right? I managed to snag a couple before they were all out, so let's eat up and we can finish off with those."

He chuckled at my excitement. He sat down, and I watched as he adjusted his arm. He was uncomfortable, and tried to hide the pain in his face, but all I had to do was listen.

"How's your arm?" I asked.

"It hurts like hell but I'll manage. I took something to help ease the pain." He handed me a drink and took to the other one.

"How's your....." He looked up and didn't finish the sentence.

"It's ok. It's tender and a little itchy, but other then that it's ok." I told him.

"That means it's healing. It should close up in a few days. I can take a look at it in a couple days if you want." He asked as he played with the food on his plate.

His mind was going a mile a minute. He kept replaying the image of the gun to my head, and was beating himself up over it. Over something not even I saw coming.

"Rowen...."

"I know...I know, I can't help it." He said.

"You can't blame yourself, it's not your fault."

"You say that, but I don't feel it. If I had your ability I could have done something about him, when we were first approached." He said.

"You wouldn't have been able to anyways." I picked up a tart and took a bite out of it. My god it was good. "Mmm. You have got to the one of these."

"Sare...dont change the subject. What do you mean I wouldn't have been able too?" He asked sternly.

"Meaning, I wasn't able to get a read on him. I was able to read everyone else, but him...his mind and expression were blank. I had to push real deep to get anything and even then it was cloudy."

"That's because he was a fucking psychopath! There brains don't work like ours do. There fucking hardwired differently and god knows what other shit these people think of." He spoke abruptly.

I let him take a breath before is went further with the topic. "How do you mean different?" I asked.

He sighed. "In residency I read about these doctors who found a genetic marker in their genetic code, that they said could help identify sociopaths, physcopaths, even serial killers. They used that to explain the different ways these individuals think. They were essentially hardwired that way. Not like you and me, but on a whole other playing field.

I had a patient once that exhibited this trait. It was crazy what she did. She put on this wholsome act when she came in for an evaluation. It was so good, someone who didn't study it wouldnt know the difference. That is until a specialist caught on, and her overall demeanor changed. She went from an empathetic loving mother to someone completely different. She all of a sudden lacked any sort of emotion, and became cold hearted. As if she didn't understand the concept of sympathy or even love. However everything that came out of her head was precisely calculated. Pretty scary if you ask me. The fact that they even think at all is mind boggling."

"Hm." I pondered.

"It's fucked up is what it is." He said.

"Wait........what was that last thing you said?" I asked.

"That it's fucked up?"

"No......the other one." I felt like I was onto something.

"What......that they even think?" He asked confused.

I stood up from my chair.

"That's it.....Rowen!" I scrambled over to the other side where he sat and I kissed him. "Thank you!" I quickly took off leaving him all flustered.

•~ Jay! •~

•~ Jesus Sarah! You scared the shit outta me•~ He blurted.

•~ Where are you? •~ I asked.

•~ In my room.....why?•~

•~ I'll be there in 2•~

I ran as fast as I could till I reached his room in a matter of seconds.

"Jay!"

I watched as he jumped out of his chair. "Would you cut that out. what's going on? Is everything ok?"

I had to catch my breath before I could tell him.

"For god sake Sarah what is it?" He asked.

"I know how to catch the leak."

.....................

Raeve and June's P.O.V

"Open your eyes June."

I watched her slowly open them. I smiled. Someone so confident a second ago had all tensed up again.

She looked around, and jumped up into my arms after realising that she blipped along with me.

"Oh my god! You did it!" She said.

"No June......we did it."

She looked around over the glacier to see the night sky dancing with colours.

"Where are we?" She asked. "It's beautiful."

"We're in Laferty." I told her.

She looked at me suddenly shocked. I took her half way across the world.

"H......how?" She asked.

"I saw it in a magazine once. To be honest, I've never jumped this far before but once you transferred your energy into me, it didn't seem much of a distance. I remembered this place, and it was the first place I wanted to take you too."

"Thank you Raeve." She said softly. "The colours are so beautiful."

I turned to her. "This is what I see when you are surrounded by your energy. It is a beautiful thing to witness."

We stayed silently and watched the night sky. it was maybe about 10 minutes before I had to break the news.

"It's fuckin cold though. Perhaps next time I'll pick a warmer climate." We both laughed.

"You ready to head back?" I asked.

She closed her eyes and the glow lit up immediately as she opened them. She then held out her hand and I felt the warmth hit my skin. She nodded, and I blipped us back to Lingham.

•~ Raeve, June! your back! •~

We looked at eachother confused. But then again it didn't take us long to realise she must have sensed us.

•~ Meet me in Jay's room•~ she said.

•~ On our way•~

"What do you think is going on?" I asked June.

She looked at me with hope back in her eyes.

"She found something."