It's almost as if it were in slow motion. Lukas's eyes fluttering close, his face relaxing as a sigh passes through his half opened mouth, his back slumping as gravity pulls him into the ground.

I, being the great friend I am, don't react to him and instead focus on the fire that's raging in me. I think steam is coming out of my ears, as a desperately try to hold the flames back. And I redouble my efforts when it tries to spring out to attack my friends who are actually helping Lukas.

How useless... I cause my best friend to faint, purely through my choices alone, and don't even help him. That's just wrong. Wrong as a friend, wrong as a leader, wrong as a hero. Failure on all accounts.

My strength slips up, and my fire bursts out. I pull it back towards me, pleading with my thoughts for it to stop. Amazingly, it does. I still can't control it well enough, but now I can keep it swirling around me at the very least.

Until Lukas's head snaps up, eyes wide open. Another burst of flames that I futilely attempt to stamp out. I'm glad Lukas is awake again, but I'm currently occupied trying reign my fire back which is almost like trying to hold back a rearing horse. So very hard to do.

But then his serenity flows into me. I immediately drown all my flames with it, only a few wisps surviving. Probably the core flames or something that was in the embers before I broke them. It doesn't matter now, I've got bigger fish to fry.

Like how it's incredibly difficult to stand when I just extinguished my main source of strength. Lukas's energy is great and all, but that generally helps me mentally. But I refuse to sleep, and so I guess that means I'll eat then.

I open my eyes, and see that Lukas is trying to talk to me. It's probably because the hammering of my heart is drowning out everything else. I take a few deep breaths, but my legs shake beneath me. How am I suppose to stand now?

Lukas gets more worried and now the others come over too. Great, just great. I can't hear, I can barely stand, and I can feel their eyes starring at me. Starring at me like a weirdo and not their friend. Perhaps everything would have turned out better if...

My body folds up underneath me, and my head falls into what I'm assuming is Lukas. I can't really see, everything's kinda blurry. I'm probably going faint and will go under in a few seconds, which would explain why I can't really sense anything around me. Since I'm touching Lukas, no nightmares and only some good rest.

Are you serious? Eavesdrop on your friends, lie to the person trying to help, threaten to hurt all of your friends, actually hurt one who's been taking care of you, and then just leave them to care of you some more. Come on Bane of the Admin! Do something yourself for once!

I crack open my eyes, and painfully focus my eyes so I can see. I'm slouched over, leaning on Lukas. Muffled voices swarm my head, so I strain my ears to hear them. I'm already breathing heavily by just trying to do that.

"...not asleep."

"Looks asleep to me."

So that's Lukas and maybe Axel? I can't identify for some reason. A hand pushes my head back and bright stinging lights dig into my eyes at once. I squeeze them shut and try to gather strength without turning to my flames.

"Okay, yeah, he's awake." Same voice, definitely Axel's.

"Hey Jesse, can-"

"Back off, he's really off right now." That's it, time to actually do something. "Hopefully, he will fall asleep and-"

I snap my head up and open my eyes, already braced for the pain. Before Lukas can react I unfold my legs and stand back up. Quick and strong as I usually am, but that took so much more effort than usual. What's wrong with me?

I clap my hands together, getting everyone out of shock. "Well that was fun. But I'm hungry, and you guys are due an explanation."

Without looking back or even pausing, I walk to the kitchen. I have no idea how long I can stay standing up. Black dots are swarming my sight and there's this pounding headache that's squeezing the sides of my skull. I wouldn't be surprised if I fell right now, but I can get rest when I sit down on a kitchen chair.

"Jesse, that can wait." I clench my jaw as I remember Lukas as full access to my emotions now. "You need to rest."

Although it must come off as rude, I don't stop or even look at Lukas. It's hard enough walking in a straight line as it is. If I stop then I'll fall down, and I'm going to be shipped off to bed without doing a lick of anything.

"Correction: I need to eat. And it's about time I finally explain what's happening. So that's what I'm going to do."

A great idea pops into my head. That stubborn feeling, the immovable rock in my head, I push it onto the string. Hopefully, Lukas will now only feel that and not the other emotions he shouldn't even have to worry about in the first place.

I can see the effects on his face. He blinks a couple of times, looking disorientated. He looks back at me, and I give him the innocent look before walking into the kitchen. I really don't care about food right now, and just immediately sit down.

And that's when Lukas narrows his eyes at me. I play it cool, he might be trying to find some guilt and that stubbornness is slightly cracking. Part of me, a pretty big part, just wants to fall onto a couch and lay there forever. But if Lukas sees that, then I'll end up as a useless sap.

Olivia glides into a chair and places her hand on my shoulder. "Are you well enough to do be doing this Jesse?"

"Yes.""No."

I glare at Lukas, and allow some of my frustration to leak onto his string. He just huffs and looks away, and thankfully doesn't say anymore. I let myself have a small smirk in victory.

Petra sits down next to me. "Are you guys having a silent conversation or something?"

"No, we're not." Lukas has given up, quite bitterly, and plops down on a chair. "It's a bit different than that."

Axel gives me a disapproving glare. "I swear, if you made a secret code with him before me, I'll be very upset with you."

I smile and shake my head, although what I really want to do is let my head fall onto the table and not move. But taking a deep breath, I simply silently watch him and Ivor take their seats. Hearing Ivor mutter 'This should be interesting...'

"Okay, I've already tried to say this twice so hopefully I actually can this time. Surely a disaster can wait awhile this time right? I think I've earned that."

Petra rolls her eyes. "When do you ever get a break Jesse?"

I open my mouth, but Lukas mumbles first. "Not since before the Wither Storm..."

Everyone looks at Lukas, confused. But I just sigh before continuing. The faster I get this done, the faster I can rest.

"Anyway, can you all just hold your questions to the best of your ability? I would prefer just to get it all out before something happens."

They all nod and Lukas gives me a smile, realizing that it's either support me or make it worse for me. I've already nearly killed my friends twice and they're still here, so I'm sure they can handle the information. I should probably be more worried about all the questions afterwards.

"You all know that this fire thing first appeared when I was about to die awhile ago and that Lukas knows something you don't."

Nods, and the wish I could just nod off. "Lukas actually showed up that same day for separate reasons, and that's when I told him. Now don't feel bad. I almost grilled him too, and was hesitant to talk about it."

"So, you guys are actually lucky." I stop for a second to suppress a yawn. "Because we knew even less to the small amount we know now. But we've figured out that I can do a bit more than just control some fire.

"One, I can see things outside of my body. No idea how it works or really anything, but it was how I knew that those demons were approaching Beacontown. It happened once before, and I don't know how to do it intentionally."

I scratch the back of my head, trying blink the heaviness from my eyes. "Two, I think I can make myself burn on the inside so anything that touches me burns but I don't show my fire. Also not entirely sure on this one either, or really any of them, but when I was walking outside during a rainstorm and steam rose off of me.

"And the last 'ability' that I know of, is transferring my fire over to Lukas. All I really care about this is that it sucks and it hurts. Maybe we did it wrong or something, but it's not happening again in the foreseeable future."

Lukas actually cringes as I speak, maybe that affected him more than I realized. "While on the topic of Lukas, there's a bit more understanding... but there's not a whole and it's still really vague."

A wave of tiredness crashes over me, the words on my tongue dying. I hang my head as I try to take deep breaths. I rub my eyes and use my arms to push my head back up, shaking off the grogginess. Just a wee bit longer, then I will have finally done what I've been trying to do for what feels like days.

"So uh, he's like connected to me. Not sure why, but there's like a string in my head binding me to him. For me, it has little impact unless Lukas is touching me. Then it's awesome. It's way easier to control my fire, it helps me focus, and generally gives an energy boost.

"For Lukas, he gets the ability to feel my emotions." Everyone's eyes widen on that one. "Which is why he's been rushing over to me and grabbing me a lot. He can sense my fire going out of control and help me out with it."

"However," We all snap our heads over to Lukas. "That's not the entirety of it."

I'm surprised, really surprised since I thought I knew everything. I really I want to say 'What now?' to him. But I just lean back in my chair, which almost sends me asleep, and raise an eyebrow. I'm not suppose to be tired or out of it, I have to remain cool and unfazed. I can't be asleep all the time regardless that I'm generally tired all the time.

"There are, instincts I guess, warning me about stuff sometimes. But I've also noticed that I've become stronger and faster than what I was before. It increases everyday and I don't know when it'll stop."

Lukas sighs and looks at me, very strangely. It's almost in shame, but with a disappointed vibe. I narrow my eyes, I have not yet been told about this.

"I don't know anything about that yellow fire expect that it takes over Jesse and leaves some problems in its wake. For this entire morning, everything's been off with, uh, feeling Jesse. At first it was normal, then it all but vanished, then it slammed into me like a horse charging at full speed, and now it's obviously wrong or dead or just gone!"

I scowl, not at Lukas though. I was trying to help him and I made things worse. From his tone and face, he must thinks he's failed at something for some reason. And I did that! I hate that feeling but I just gave it to someone else. I need to make sure I don't do that again.

"See! That anger spike, I can't feel it!" To everyone's astonishment, Lukas slams his fists into the table. Before sighing and sinking into his arms. Clearly that string is much more important than I originally thought. I have to fix this for Lukas.

But I still want to keep some things private, just a few. "Did it happen while I was, err... possessed?"

Lukas looks up and shakes his head. "No, that was different. That was more like getting two different waves of emotion. One was completely horrified and panicked while the other felt crazed and in a rage. But now it's just off."

Lukas sighs and buries his head back into his arms. He looks incredibly depressed, I didn't even see it coming. I suppose I'm not the only actor then. I can't stand seeing him like that though. So I close my eyes and look back to the string. This will help him.

The rock of stubbornness is still there, although I don't really feel it anymore. Maybe I'm used to it at the moment or something. The string is completely still though, and I guess that's what plunged Lukas into his depressed state. It's quite possible he needs this as much as I need my fire. So I drag it back into me, releasing the string.

Lukas, however, doesn't even react. Like if he didn't notice or something. I can see the string acting normally, nothing is wrong anymore. Lukas could be in a rut, everything could be hitting him right now all at once and that's the reason for his mood plummet. That however doesn't change the fact I need to help him.

"Hold up, Lukas." Lukas sighs again and lifts his head with great reluctance to Olivia. "Are those you're emotions right now?"

I inhale sharply, but everyone's attention is on Olivia now, they don't notice. Perhaps I do need to explain a few things to Lukas. But will that make him better? Will it slowly make it worse? Things need to get better for Lukas, not worse.

Shaking my head, I refocus on Olivia. "...never acted like this when you're upset. Is it a mixture of yours and Jesse's emotions?"

So if I admit these thoughts and bring them out, will everything just break apart? My friends will worry over me and not the problem, I'll just feel even worse about myself, and then watch Beacontown get ravaged by demons because the Hero in Residence wasn't a good enough hero.

And will Lukas get worse? If I'm depressed all the time, he'll be stuck with me. I'm pretty sure I'll drive him crazy. Plus, then HE would be feeling these emotions but even worse! I can't do that to him! That's just... wrong, immoral, a terrible sin. No, I have to do something else to help him.

It would be best then to just push this to the side right? It's work in the past plenty of times, it should be no different this time. Push the emotions down until the current crisis is over and then worry about them. Once there's nothing else more important, I'll deal with these thoughts.

Someone snaps in front of my eyes and I jerk to face Petra. "Hey, you there Jesse?"

"What? Yeah, just lost in thought." I scratch the back of my head and give a sheepish smile. Petra nods, and I look back to the others. Lukas still looks terrible. There has to be something I can do, some way to take it off of him. I have to help somehow.

"Guys," I perk up at Lukas's voice. "I'm sure it'll pass after awhile."

"What if it doesn't? We need you Lukas, we can't have you sitting on the sides." More confirmation from Olivia about what I need to do. Besides, she is right. It might take awhile for me to fix this. Yet Lukas shouldn't have to suffer because of that, I need to do something.

"I'm..." Lukas starts to pant heavily, and my nightmare suddenly comes to mind. What if he's experiencing that, but only the emotions? Or perhaps he's slowly picking up more and more of these emotions. Either way, Lukas will end up in some sort of pain.

"Okay... so I'm... not... fine..." I spasm in my chair, feeling the wind slammed out of me. My limbs are burning with fire, something I didn't even notice. But that doesn't matter, I need to help to Lukas.

"Jesse's eyes are glowing again!" I look back at my friends, all of them at some degree of panic. They don't have to worry though, all I'm going to do is help Lukas. That's all. Lukas needs to be fine again, he can't be in pain.

I stand up and make my way over to Lukas, fire flickering off of me. He looks up at me once I'm next to him. I lift a hand, fire and energy swirling inside in the small limb. The energy builds and builds and when it's perfect, I touch Lukas's head and push it in him.

A jolt of confusion blasts through me and I jump back. I shake my head, and get my bearings back together. First things first, I need to figure out what I just did to Lukas. Then I would like to know why it just happened like that.

"Uhh, Lukas?" I don't know if there is a correct way to handle this, I have no clue about this anymore. It would be incredibly nice for everything to just line up and I can obviously see what's happening. Why did I react so strongly and so... instinctual?

"Jesse," Ivor looks away from the dazed Lukas and to me. "What in the name of squids did you do to him?"

The others instantly look at me too and I raise my hands in surrender. "I have no idea! I swear! I-I don't... I have no idea what I did, why I did it, or even how! I-I just... just..."

There's nothing I can say, I messed up. I lower my head and let my shoulders drop, everything that happened to Lukas was my fault anyway. He shouldn't even be in this mess in the first place.

"Stop!"

****

And it's at times like these where it just kinda sinks in how long this story will be.

Obviously you don't know, but I'm that quiet ambitious person with A LOT bursting inside my head. That does make it hard to explain what I'm doing as I'm doing it, but everything always comes together.

No need to worry about me suddenly dropping the book because I can't overcome Writer's Block... *sad flashbacks*

Anyway, brace yourself for more abilities Jesse and Lukas have! Bye now!