Mason stares into the Hulk-proof containment unit through a video camera, watching his unconscious best friend lying on the smooth floor. "She went completely volatile, Tony. What else was I supposed to do?" Natasha snaps at the older man. The whole team was here, debating how to handle Kirstin.
"Talk to her? Throw her in the van? I don't know, but you don't beat your niece over the head six times with her own bo staff!" Tony snaps right back, quickly glancing over to make sure the children in the Playpen on the other side of the room are still asleep.
"It was five times," Bucky adds carefully, his eyes never leaving the young man. Wanda was also watching him, curiosity in her blue eyes. Stupid fucking Kirstin. Stupid fucking need to help people. Stupid fucking Spirit. Stupid fucking Darkness, driving her insane.
"What is the Darkness that's making her mad?" Wanda questions the brunette, causing the man in question to spin around and glare at the girl; who's merely a few years older than him.
"Stay out of my head, for one." He snaps, anger boiling in his system. All of this was his fault. "The Darkness is a disease of the mind that's created from Spirit. Spirit is what I use to heal people. It's one of five elements Moroi can specialize in; the rarest one, actually. I'm not a Moroi, I don't drink blood or anything. Just so you know. Anyway, uh... it's basically a shit ton of powers jammed into one; compulsion, reading auras, dream walking, creating illusions, telekinesis, and mind-reading. Or at least, that's what I've been told. I personally can only use compulsion, read auras, and heal people. Lissa Dragomir, another Spirit user, showed me how those things work, but I can't do it, so don't even ask me to." He shoots a look at Sam, who was just about to ask him to demonstrate. "Anyway, Moroi pull their abilities from the Earth around them, while us Spirit users... we pull it from our own...." He was trying to find a word to explain it.
"Soul?" Steve offers leaning against the wall closest to his kids.
"Okay, cool. What does this have to do with Kirstin?" Tony demands irritably.
Shooting him a glare, the dhampire continues speaking, "If you'd let me finish, you'd know. Yeah, we pull it from our own life force; and it drives us crazy and eventually kills us. The Darkness is, basically, what drives us insane. It forms after we use our powers; the size you use depending on the power you used, how much power you used, and for how long you used it. Healing small cuts is probably the least harmful thing, bringing someone back from death is easily one of the most."
It was Thor's turn to interrupt him, "You can bring people back from the dead! Does this mean that-"
"No." Mason cuts off bluntly, "What's dead is dead. Or I guess technically not, all things considered. But in this sense, Spirit-wise, dead is dead. I can't bring someone who has been dead for months- hell, even hours- back to life. I- We can, however, bring people back from the brink of death. Essentially we're slamming their souls back into their bodies before they complete finish crossing over. The people that are brought back are called Shadow-Kissed. They've crossed over to the other side and came back, making them susceptible to ghosts, especially if they were the one to kill them. When someone becomes Shadow-Kissed, a mental bond is formed between the Spirit user and the person, their Shadow-kissed partner if you will. Usually, the person who was brought back can read the Spirit user's mind, emotions, and can even look through their eyes. If the person is brought back from the brink again by the same Spirit user the bond is broken. Also, if the user uses too much of their powers, the Darkness will spread to the bond-mate, or the bond-mate will pull the Darkness away from the user. That's what happened here."
"You and Kirstin..." Tony begins, trailing off as his eyes move from the young man in front of him over to the video of the containment cell. Mason's nerves were eating him up, not to mention the guilt. He knew Tony would burn down the world if it meant Kirstin was okay, and that made the boy wonder what was going to happen to him. Not that he didn't think he deserved it.
