In real life, I saw Snake Eye bleeding from his ears, eyes, nose and mouth. Chad kicked him off the bed, turned me over and got a good grip on me. I wasn't ready, thinking he'd let me go, but he began riding me, while Shigure struggled to stand up from the ground beside the bed. Hateful man. I wanted to escape. Did it have to be so hard and fast?
Shigure looked at Chad with disgust, but seemed to be able to see something I couldn't. He didn't stop his former friend. He put his hand on one of my hands, trying not to look or listen to the slapping sounds, grunts or cries.
"Uki-chan," he said with determination and lament, "I don't want to ask this of you, but…"
"Shigure," I puffed, trying not to struggle against Chad's intensive assault so that it wouldn't hurt so much, "just do it."
I gave my mentor's hand a squeeze and opened up all my mental channels, allowing Shigure full control over me and my abilities once more. With a shaking hand and tears in his eyes, Shigure sat on the bed and put his hands on my head, allowing my head to rest in his lap. We all closed our eyes, looking inward and entering my mind once more to discover that Chad was draining himself in order to fill me with all the power and strength that Shigure might need.
*"Let's get married in our next life, ok, Little Bluebird?"* Chad joked in a weak voice. *"Red Eye, you had better be completely successful this time. Don't let them come attacking us again when we're gone."*
*"Isn't there a better way to pass on strength rather than abusing my apprentice in this way?"* Shigure asked angrily.
*"If I have to go, I might as well go doing what I like best with the person I like the best,"* Chad retorted. *"I chose her when she was still so sweet, innocent and naive. And now look at her. They've ruined her. This is the fastest way to pass on my strength,"* he added. *"I'm not so resistant to mental injuries like the two of you. After all, I'm not a real mental ability user. Getting him out of my head has literally killed me. If I don't do this, I'm going to die before I can give you enough strength to expel the enemy from our city, reach across the sea and teach them a lesson."*
That shocked both Shigure and I. It was only then that I realised that Chad was fading. And he was really squeezing out every last drop for us. I wanted to reach across to heal him, but he stopped me.
*"Stop, Little Bluebird,"* he gave me a sad smile. *"Save your strength. You're going to need it. I didn't want to do this to you in this situation, but right now, we don't have much choice. I was meant to die a long time ago. I'm just glad that I lived long enough to meet you and gain a new interest in life. I am glad that I get to finally do you as much as I want to. Isn't it great? I get to do you for the rest of my life. You really are the best, you know? Your body immediately recognised me. No one can compare to how tight you feel and how you squeeze me despite how many other bastards have used you…"*
Chad continued with more graphic descriptions until Shigure shut him up with disgust by muting his mental voice. This man. Hateful to the end. I couldn't even thank him for being willing to help while he was hurting me like this.
Shigure grimaced, held my hand and patted my head.
*"I'm sorry, Uki-chan,"* he said. *"Try and ignore him. I haven't taught you mental attacks before. You'll have to learn as we go. Perhaps there'll be a chance for you to survive and use it to defend yourself in the future."*
*"What is this?"* Forest Mother's voice flooded my head, making me wince.
*"Why is my daughter's head so full of a foreign man's power?"* Desert Father boomed and I felt my mind shake. It hurt.
*"We are going to repel the enemy,"* Shigure gripped my hand more firmly and gave me a look. He relayed the image of the city at war and being taken over by greedy people who were snatching ability users and trying to take all our resources for themselves. How they were torturing people to death in order to try and find the key to awakening abilities. They had already started to prepare for an assault on the Tangled Mountains and an invasion into the sacred places of the desert.
*"We will help,"* the guardian giants said, flooding me with even more power, sending their understanding and images of enemy agents and soldiers that had already started plundering the desert and edges of the forest.
I was not an elastic stretchable container. This much power was almost more than I could bear. I heard a cracking sound and fought to keep my mind intact and prevent it from breaking again. I had to hold it for as long as I could in order to give Shigure enough time to get the job done.
I felt Chad use his remaining strength to help prop me up and reinforce my mind in order to channel such a huge amount of power. Physically, I felt him slowing down.
I watched and flew with Shigure to see what he would do. He used my left eye, since his red left eye was gone. My left eye burned with the power of the ancient judges and from on high, the inheritance he had passed down to me. With that power and all the borrowed strength, he spread our collective gaze out into the city, sweeping through the enemy ranks, felling them with precise strikes to their minds.
It wouldn't kill all of them, but it would incapacitate them. Some of them, especially those with extra electronic gadgets on their heads that enabled them to mimic the talent of a mental ability user, glanced up with looks of horror. They sensed us coming but had no where to run or hide. We tore through their cardboard defences as if it were tissue paper.
The water guardian, Sea Swimmer, sensed what was going on and joined the other two guardians in my mind, lending speed and power to Shigure and my shared attacks. My mind was melting at the edges from the heat of so much condensed power squeezed into such a small space.
We swept through our city and the sea caves, felling all our enemies. We found several traitors of our own people and struck them as we passed by. Beneath the sea, we sunk two submarines. On the sea, two fleets of enemy ships were capsized or forced to turn on each other in confusion. On our enemy's shores, we located and destroyed their headquarters, wreaking havoc and waking the area guardian who had been hibernating with a jolt. The area guardian was on the very verge of death.
We felt her emotions and saw the images she transmitted. She didn't have the strength to speak clearly.
Our enemies had found her and experimented on her while she was asleep. They had taken things from her.
Now awake, she recognised the Forest Mother. The Forest Mother called her 'sister' and went into a rage at seeing the state her sister was in. The city was decimated.
Forest Mother's sister added her remaining strength to ours. With her added strength, we could go further inland and we rushed across the enemy's land until we reached their capital. We were running out of time and my hold was slipping. My mind was burning. I was straining to keep the channel open to allow them to work together through me until the job was done.
The military fortress was reduced to rubble bringing down many of the military leaders and politicians in the adjacent parliament. We struck at the heart of the enemy's power before most of our energy had been expended.
My mind had long since burned out from the force and power that had been channeled through me. It was a miracle I was still able to keep myself open for them at all. Chad's presence had faded. Forest Mother's sister died with that final strike. The three remaining guardians had expended their energy and only ushered Shigure and I back into the general vicinity of our city before going to hibernate and recover their strength. They didn't have the energy left to check in on me. Shigure and I barely made it back just as my burnt mind imploded.