Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

FORTY- Backs Against the Wall

I was grateful for the questions, even though they were scattered and worried. I hadn't even realized how deeply the fog had settled into my mind, but it was a great relief to be able to think coherently again.

Voices floated slowly down to me, seeming like they were coming from a million miles away. I couldn't identify the speakers or make out what they were saying, but they sounded worried. So most likely not Essa, then.

I suddenly caught a few disjointed fragments of words, and distantly recognized the voices that went with them.

Jess...oh god, Jess, tell me...okay...please, please tell me you're...

I don't...he can hear you, Lukas...this is harder than it...shut up, please...

I gasped as my eyes snapped open, my body collapsing onto the ground of the In-Between. I rolled onto my stomach, lifting myself partially up and dry-heaving as a thousand unpleasant sensations rippled through me. Pain, everywhere. Every single muscle in my body was in agony, as though I'd just been thrown off a cliff or two.

"Holy...fuck." I panted. "What just happened."

Lukas crouched next to me as I lay on the ground, resting a hand on my back. "Are you okay?" he asked anxiously.

"I don't even know what okay means right now. That was so many different kinds of fucked up." I wheezed. I started to push myself up into a sitting position, then gave up and flopped onto my back.

Jacek helped Julia sit up as she massaged her forehead and groaned loudly. "What was that? Why does everything hurt so much?" she snapped.

"I don't know what it was, but I know I never want to come across anything even remotely like that ever again. I hate being paralyzed." I complained, draping one arm over my eyes.

"What happened to you guys?" Jacek asked anxiously. "What was that...place, thing, whatever?"

"It...ugh, it did all sorts of things. It felt like it was detaching my mind from my body, freezing my physical self, and turning my brain to mush, all at the same time. It got to the point where I couldn't think at all, couldn't even feel things." Julia explained with a shudder. "And even that doesn't do it justice. It was a nightmare."

I slowly sat up, still wincing. Every joint protested as I moved, but the agony was gradually fading down to an insistent ache. Lukas supported me as I got up, allowing me to lean on him as I struggled to work through the pain.

Now that I was on my feet, I saw that although we were still in the In-Between, we were no longer inside the circle of gates. I could see the white shapes in the near distance, but we were on the outside, among the strange misshapen towers. Looking closer, I realized that the bizarre structures were made of some kind of mottled dark-blue stone, the likes of which I had never seen before.

"I'm just glad we got you out before anything else happened." Jacek commented.

I was about to reply to this when Aiden suddenly said, "Uh...guys? He's not waking up."

I turned to see him kneeling next to Jasper's prone form, gently shaking the boy's shoulder as he lay motionless on his side. Jasper's eyes moved below closed lids, and his face was deathly pale.

"Let's just give him a bit and see if he comes out of it on his own." Julia suggested. "That place did quite a number on Jess and me, so I'm not sure I want to know what it did to him."

"Why would he be any different than you two?" Aiden asked.

I sighed distressedly. "Because...he's not a Prime."