***FIONNA***
"Boys! Boys! Stop it!" I force Gabe and Harris apart, feeling the licks of their attacks - Gabe's ice, Harris' fire - on my hands and arms. The latter doesn't hurt me so much because it's my own elemental, so I'm a little resistant to it, but even I have my limits. "Harris, are you really gonna let that Peppermint mind-control shit get to you like that? You're not gonna hurt the people you love!"
Harris doesn't answer. He simply stares blankly at me and Gabe, one hand lining up a dark attack.
"Nope nope nope!" I bring my own flaming hand very close to his dark one. Close, but not in enough range to actually light up that slick coating of crude oil. "Harris? We just got you back, and we are NOT gonna lose you!"
He blinks. Am I getting to him? I'm going to need Gabe's help to finish the job, though. I step back and get level with Gabe, who's cautiously lowering his shield and gazing at Harris tenderly. "Dude?"
Harris' eyes soften, losing just a bit of focus. But he raises his dark-powered hand, forcing me to raise my fire again. He must know I don't intend to actually hurt him, but you know what they say about the road to Purgatory. In any case, until we get him to overcome his Peppermint-placed mental block the way Jay did...actually, strike that. Jay had to almost kill a guy to overcome the control over his mind, and I'm not willing to take that chance with Gabe. Or myself.
I spare a moment to look at the other fight going on. That Alicia woman's whirling around a light blade in one hand and Force-type lightning in the second, so she's able to enforce a pretty wide protective radius around herself - not that it stops our friends from launching their attacks. Four against one, so they stand a pretty good chance, I think.
Back to me, Gabe, and Harris, though...
"Rook?" I don't mean to say the word in a questioning tone, but I've got a random idea and no idea if it'll even work. "Rook...deactivate."
If Harris were a robot - like in I, Robot or something, and I've only seen the movie, so don't come at me, Asimov fans - he'd shut down right away. Instead, he stiffens and says, "Unable to comply." So...does that mean he's a robot, or a cyborg, or an android, or what? I'm pretty sure there's a distinction between all three. Oh wait, I forgot one - Power Ranger. I say that with an equally piss-poor knowledge of that particular franchise as my knowledge of Asimov, though. Power Rangers never took off in Hell, really.
Whatever the case may be, Gabe and I step forward in mutual agreement that Harris is not a robot of any kind. He's a pure soul that needs our help to avoid corruption at Alicia's hands.
Maybe reach out without that shield? I suggest.
He lets it vanish in a snowy puff of steam. "Harris. Look at me." He reaches out and takes his boyfriend's dark-energized hand. "I know this has nothing to do with you being mind-controlled and shit right now, but I just wanted to get this off my chest. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I stood by while...while you vanished, and I couldn't do anything about it..."
I'm not sure why he's throwing me under the bus here - but then, I don't blame him for still having a bit of a grudge against me for accidentally wrecking his relationship. So I speak up for myself. "It's not just him, Harris. I'm sorry too. Because I stepped on toes I shouldn't have. I only wanted to make things better for myself, and damn the consequences. But...but you're back now, and we need you to step up for us, okay? Please."
Gabe only held Harris' hand with one of his before, but now he doubles his grip. Twice the chances for his hands to slip away, but he's not letting that bother him. "The point we're trying to make here, Harris, is that you've been missed, and you're always loved. And we need you back, completely."
I rub my forehead with my knuckles - yes, I switched my fire off first, why do you ask? - and watch for Harris' reaction. Will he get stabby or any other form of attack-y, or did we break down the barriers in his brain?
It's a long, long, long, long, long time, in which all I know is the sight of Gabe holding Harris' hand, and the sounds of the other fight still happening in the periphery. Dare I sneak a glance? No, if I do, I might jinx it, and it'll all swing in Alicia's favor. I should know. Every time I call a surefire win - like, say, during the Super Bowl, or whenever the Kings are playing - I keep on watching and it blows up in my face. Thankfully, I'm not exactly a betting girl, or else I'd have lost all my shirts to Kevin. And I'm pretty sure he'd rather burn than wear a shirt with all the Disney Princesses lined up on it, even if they're dressed in punky pink and purple threads. With blue jeans for texture. For instance. Although you never know - maybe as he grows, he'll realize he doesn't have to stick to being masculine at all times just 'cause he's a boy. Even we demons need to learn that lesson sometimes, that gender conformity is all your choice.
Wait, why am I rambling? Because in the middle of a tense situation, all I can do is distract myself by any means necessary so I don't fucking crack up.
I really shouldn't do that, because then I almost miss what's really important.
Like Harris finally shutting down his powers and wrapping Gabe in a tight rib-crusher of a hug.
I keep watching them embrace, Harris rocking gently against Gabe, clearly struggling not to cry. Then he lets go of him and hugs me instead. Thanks for bringing me back, he thinks before kissing my cheek.
I didn't do anything. It was all Jay. And how'd you know?
Gabe told me. What do you think we were doing for that long, long hug? He smiles at me, then looks over my shoulder at Alicia. "Oh, her ass is mine."
"As you wish." Gabe pats Harris on the back before he jumps over the desk and joins the fight. No one else has been able to get close to Alicia, but I'm pretty sure it's because none of the others have dark powers. Only Harris. He throws dark energy that wipes out much of her lightning, creating openings for everyone else to hit her with ice, fire, light, and even land (Gideon, Kelly, and Ty have made a few small sinkholes to try and trip Alicia up, though she's fleet enough of foot to avoid them.)
"Get her feet too!" cries Grace.
"Say what?" asks Kelly.
"Not you! Harris!" Grace gestures fiercely at Alicia's feet behind her back. "Quickly now!"
"What are you-?" Harris begins.
"Her shoes aren't rubber-soled! They can conduct electricity!"
Without another word, Harris darks up Alicia's feet, sealing them tightly in a black cocoon. She struggles to break free, but he keeps layering the sticky shit over and over again. Underneath those layers, I see faint little sparks of white trying to burst out, but to no avail.
Bolstered by this sight, I send her a massive, whirling flame that forces her to crouch to avoid it, and then Kensi hits the top of her head with a pulse of light. Alicia screams as her own elemental style works against her, and then stops short, frozen to the spot.
I'm pretty sure we've at least temporarily paralyzed her. Talk about crashing her hard drive. Service, denied. The only sign of life is her lips fluttering as she tries to process this major-league shock to her system.
I risk approaching her and possibly getting my own ass handed to me for underestimating her. "So...what's this I hear about our friends being somewhere else?"
Alicia's lips keep fluttering, but she doesn't speak.
"I'll rephrase the question, 'cause you're right, I worded it wrong. Confusing as all bloody hell." I grab her chin and pull it up so she has no choice but to look me in the eye - at least, until she regains ocular mobility to the point where she can pointedly eyeball someone else. Kensi, I think, unless she's swapped positions behind me with Ty or somebody. "Where. Is. Alex. Snow?"
"You sure she's got him somewhere?" asks Harris.
"She said something about the morgue before," says Gabe. "That's where Alex went. I think."
Harris chortles for a moment. "Your twin telepathy isn't failing you now, is it?"
"There's always a first time..." Gabe's voice trails off.
I repeat the question to Alicia, because she hasn't answered. But now she does. "Good luck finding him, even from this Terminal. I'm pretty sure they don't exactly connect to the place I sent him and his friends to."
"Lucky we're not grammar Nazis around here," I hear Ty say in an undertone, "or else we'd be opening up another can of whoop-ass on this girl."
Kelly concurs. "So extra."
"I'll take a layer off your feet if you talk," Harris says.
Alicia considers it, then nods, accepting his offer. Harris kindly does what he said he would, but then Gideon sinks her feet into the ground, ensuring that she's a little more strongly bound as the dark energy still attached to her feet floods the holes he's just made.
"Any particular reason why you did that?" asks Grace.
"I'm sorry, but I don't trust her not to escape," Gideon says.
Alicia winks. "He made the right call. Now it'll be that much harder for me to focus any electricity through my feet without reflecting it back on myself. And as Kensi here can attest, even light scrivs like us aren't exactly immune to our own electric charms."
"Yeah." Kensi crosses her arms and stares down at Alicia furiously. "Thanks for that."
"You're welcome." Alicia winks again.
"Creep," Gideon growls.
She then turns to Harris and frowns deeply at him. "Aww, did you already break my mind control? Rook-"
I run up to her and cover her mouth with my hands. "We're gonna have to keep Harris away from you until we figure out how to cure him of whatever you've got to control him."
She mutters something, her teeth grazing my palm. It sounds like either "fat chance" or "fuck that," I'm not quite sure which.
Whatever she says, Gabe comes in next to me and gets in her face to say, "Where's Alex? On his way to Peppermint HQ already?"
She shakes her head and keeps muttering away, but now it's even less comprehensible than ever. Against my better judgment, I let go of her mouth so she can say her piece. "Not HQ, not even close. I'm not even sure you could get to him from this part of the Terminal. Not..." She stops to giggle. "Not without my help!"
Grace gasps. "You can...no. That's not possible."
"Where's your sense of imagination, lady?" Alicia pouts at her. "When I was in high school, my freshman biology teacher told me something I'll never forget. The word 'impossible' is just the words 'I-M-possible.' I'll say it louder for those in the back, literally - 'I AM POSSIBLE.'" Her pout flips upward into a saccharine smile. "Words to live by, working at Peppermint. Or Immortals Image Works. Even though they thought my Marvel Land plans were too expensive and quote-unquote 'niche' to work, but that's a story for another day." She winks again. Does she have a tic or something?
"Stop beating around the bush," says Ty.
Gabe nods fiercely. "What he said. Where'd you send Alex?"
Alicia glances around from side to side like she's about to give away some kind of state secret. "I never used to be able to do this before I started working at Peppermint, though. Just ask Simon, whenever he gets out of his hospital bed-"
"Answer the bloody question!" I yell.
She winces, finally looking defeated. Then she swallows and gives us the answer, and suffice it to say we're all floored. I know I'm not the only one with a nanite buzzing filling my head, and it's not even actual nanites - just an intense fear for Alex's life. Assuming it hasn't been lost.
"Grace?" I take her aside. "Grace...please tell me one of these doors leads to the Third 'Verse."