"Little Liesel Jäger, just look at you! Never would I have believed that the small child from years ago, would turn out to be such a beautiful young woman." A voice from behind spoke. Liesel had been standing stock still on the deck of this ship staring blankly ahead. She couldn't move. Simply couldn't. It was all her nightmares in one. She would've liked to have asked how he could even see her face to call her beautiful; but her voice was gone. She was so distracted by the nightmare that was now reality. Being on a boat, surrounded by water, with that man behind her. She recognised his voice as soon as he started speaking. Her eyes narrowed as she slowly managed to turn on her heels and look at him. He looked no different. Perhaps a little stupider, she thought. Considering he was standing in a navy blue velvet jacket, white trousers and a white shirt. Who wears velvet in hot weather? She felt like voicing this yet didn't.

"What do you want?" Liesel asked in heavily accented English. Seems he spoke to her in the language, she saw it only as polite, though she doubted he knew the word and its meaning, to reply in the same language. Truth be told, English wasn't a strong suit for her. Half the language she didn't understand, and some of the slang was way over her head.

"See," Schmidt pointed a finger at her while walking closer. He ran a hand through his hair before putting an arm around her shoulders and directing her towards the deck chairs. She naturally tensed under his touch, yet allowed him to guide her. She had learned from experience that fighting back against him only led to pain. She was more than sure that it would be the same now. "That question has so many answers as well as meanings. I mean, what do I want right now? Well, preferably I'd like you to stop glaring and looking like a petulant child. I thought you had grown out of that habit a long time ago, Liesel."

"Why am I here?" Liesel fidgeted in the deck chair and looked about herself. She regretted it, hugely. All she saw was clear, blue seas, and it caused her stomach to tighten. She couldn't deal with this.

Schmidt smiled at her, it was a sickly thing really which caused her to feel worse. "I always had hoped you and Erik would stay together. Yet when I choose to catch up with you both, I find you are on a mission to find me."

"How-"

"Do I know?" As if on cue a blonde walked out from below deck, she looked at the pair before rolling her blue eyes and turning away. She figured that something was going on between the pair and went to the higher deck. Liesel could vaguely see her lay down in a deck chair and lounge out in the sun.

"She's..." Liesel struggled and ended up pointing at herself.

"Yes," he answered with a nod. "Quite special in fact. Telepathic, what were the chances?" He questioned and actually decided to withhold Emma's other talent.

"But how'd you find me, or us?"

"You two are easier to find than you think. Just follow the destruction."

"The bank?"

"Had you two written all over it."

"Not as stealthy as I think then, huh?" Liesel smiled wryly and scratched the back of her neck. Schmidt laughed at that which caused her to look at him worriedly. She hadn't really ever heard him laugh, at least not like that. A chuckle, yes, not a full on laugh.

"It's not you that raises warning signs, it's who you run with that does."

"He's...angry." Liesel said slowly with a distant look. "He is single-handedly perhaps the angriest person I know."

"Yet that doesn't stop you from caring." One would think that lingering anger would put someone off, or rather make them extremely hesitant to be around the person. Yet not here, for example.

"Hm?" Liesel frowned and snapped her gaze to him. "What exactly is this?" She asked suddenly very conscious to the odd conversation they were just having.

Schmidt smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "This is called a catch up, Liesel." He patted her shoulder and placed his hands in his lap. "I mean, we have years to catch up, don't we?"

Her eyes narrowed, "What is it you want to know?"

He sighed and looked around. "You know if I wanted information from you, I would just get Emma to find it." That didn't really put her at ease as she shifted and went to stand up. Being pushed back to sit, Liesel ceased moving when Schmidt fixed her with a hard look. "I want to know about you, Liesel. What do you want?"

"I want to go."

"Correction: you want Erik." Which was true, Liesel couldn't deny that. She didn't want to be here on her own with this man. She wanted to be with Erik, because he was safe to her, she...Liesel frowned suddenly and looked at Schmidt. He smiled in response. "Of course you'd wish to be with the one real person you love, Liesel. Don't look so ashamed of that."

"I don't love him." Did unselfishly doing all she did count as love? She thought she did it for friendship, because she truthfully wished to help him. Did not questioning things, because it was Erik, mean that she loved him? All she really wished for was to see him happy, even though that was a hard task to achieve, even if that meant throwing all other unselfish acts into the mix. He had been a part of her life for so long...could it be at least possible that her feelings towards Erik had been overlooked by...well, everything.

"Hm, well, keep telling yourself that. So, Liesel, we're going to be here a while. I have a feeling Erik won't be showing up for a while. So I want to know what you've been doing with yourself. Preferably before Erik came back into your life. Don't look like that, Liesel. I know more than you think."

"Why are you so interested in me?" Liesel frowned and sat cross armed and looking at him.

Schmidt smiled and patted his knees. "Amongst all of the horrors of the war the humans had inflicted on you, you were still strong. You still fought, and you looked out for a fellow. Whether you wish to register it or not, but you two were destined to stay together because of that fragile bond you forged in your youths. You interest me, genuinely, Liesel, you do. I did what I did to help you, to help you both in fact. You may be ignorant to that, but it's the truth. It just interests me that you are still here. We are all the future, you, Erik, Emma, myself and others like us. I just wish to find out where you'd want to be in the grand scale of things." He said while looking at her with an honest expression and clear eyes, he searched her expression for some sort of tell while he was talking, yet she remained silent and blank faced, listening intently. She had always been the better of the two to listen.

She sat in silence and let his words sink in. "You didn't help me, or us. You made us worse. You were meant to be a doctor, and you broke us more than we were already. Nothing you did was for us. I can see...you have others around you, like that man who took me. You are not alone. You want others? You want us? It won't happen. I for one will not side with you. And Erik wants you dead, so go figure." Liesel said while narrowing her eyes at him.

Schmidt sighed and shook his head sadly. "Oh, Liesel. If only you could see that this is far bigger than anything you could ever imagine." He said while looking at her with a saddened expression, as if he truly pitied her.

Liesel bristled at this and frowned even more at him. "So what now?"

"Well, you can stay on deck and not try anything stupid. Or you could go below deck where I'm sure either Riptide or Azazel will keep guard of you."

"I'm a hostage for what purpose, exactly?"

Schmidt smiled, "Erik's going to come for you. What more purpose do I need than that so I can see him again?" And with that he stood up and left her alone. Liesel watched him go before looking around herself. She was stuck on a boat with the enemy. Looking to the sky she cursed herself for even running off from Erik's side. If she hadn't she'd still be with him.

With a groan she slouched in the chair and crossed her arms. Shutting her eyes she leaned her head back, exhaling slowly she opened her eyes and looked to the horizon. She inwardly wished for something to happen, anything, preferably Erik appearing. She rolled her eyes, since when was she so heavily dependant on him? She realised she was at this point in time considering either way escaping this boat would lead to pain, death, and doom...or being locked away. She literally did need saving from this boat. It was irksome, well and truly irksome.

She didn't move from the chair, she couldn't bear to; through fear of seeing the ever stretching horizon and all that water. The bright sun slowly dissipated, the glow of the sky turned and the blackness of night came creeping in. It was darker, much darker in fact when the three people Liesel had come into contact with stood up with serious expressions. All but Schmidt of course, Liesel had moved from her seat then when the man known as Riptide, no first name given to her, annoyingly enough, had appeared. She relocated to sit near the railings of the boat. She had spent the rest of the day clinging on for dear life with her eyes shut.

But hearing movement, she perked up. She stood up on shaky legs even when she saw Erik standing dressed all in black, sopping wet and very stern looking. There was nothing, absolutely nothing in his eyes apart from displeasure and hate for the man in front of him. His eyes did briefly flick to Liesel though, he seemed to let out a breath upon seeing her in one piece and unharmed. Frazzled and thankful to see him, but otherwise she seemed fine. Though when she was in close proximity the dark haired male seemed to place it upon himself to grip onto her arm and pull her between himself and Schmidt. Schmidt who, Erik couldn't help but notice, looked no different to the memories that flitted about in his head. It had been years, yet here he was the same as always.

"He's here to kill you," the blonde seemed to waste little to no time in stating as she stared Erik down. The stare down didn't last long before a piercing sound echoed within his skull. A sharp pain shortly followed and he let out a pained noise as he fell to the deck, on his knees with his hands on his temples. There were memories resurfacing that had been buried for so long.

"Stop! Stop it!" Liesel basically screamed as she went to vault forwards only to get roughly pulled back against the dark haired male beside her. She sent Riptide a withering look before looking back at Erik, who was struggling with the pain surging through him. "Stop it! You're hurting him!" She would go as far as killing, to be honest. She stomped a foot and tried to kick out to get free, only to get shaken as a response to stop. She scrunched her nose up as she felt her eyes stinging with tears. She didn't like seeing him hurting so much. It hurt her in return.

In a ditch effort to stop this pain, Erik flung the knife he had been clutching onto and threw it in Schmidt's direction. He watched with a blank expression as an arm shot out and deflected the blade. The hardened edged diamond form of the blonde looked simply back at Erik. The pain ebbed away and he stood, he charged forwards and in response got so easily flung away and overboard.

"Emma," Schmidt tutted as he watched her transform back into her blonde haired self. She smiled sheepishly at him as she turned to him. "We don't harm our own kind." He said with a small shake of the head. Liesel couldn't help but find this hypocritical considering all the pain he had inflicted on her in the past. But she didn't comment. She just felt herself deflate and look at the space where Erik had last been standing. "Ah! Now it's a party!" Schmidt turned and held his arms out as flood lights flared behind them.

Liesel got free and looked towards the other vessel coming their way. "What the..." She trailed off as she heard over the loud speaker that it was the coast guard. Thank the Lord she could hopefully get on that ship!

"They have a telepath." Emma's ever stoic voice spoke up suddenly.

Liesel sagged, two telepaths in the space of a few hours? This was way too much. Though be fair, Emma seemed totally unfazed by the whole thing. Liesel got roughly pushed out of the way, she stepped back and watched as Riptide easily sent harrowing winds towards the smaller speed boats which were drawing closer. Naturally they didn't stand a chance and got batted away like leaves in the wind. Against wishing to her mouth fell open. She didn't want to admit it, but she was sort of impressed. With such ease he had done such damage.

Hearing the groan of metal Liesel looked up, her mouth fell open again at the sight of the anchor suspended in the air. Her mouth slowly pulled into a smile though as she watched Schmidt and Emma retreat. They had seemingly forgotten about her and solely wished to save themselves. Which she found was fine. What wasn't fine was the fact that the anchor ripped down the centre of the ship, Liesel faltered and struggled to stay standing up straight. She faltered even more when the chain ripped through the top deck thus completely wiping it out. She screamed and fell to her knees. Looking about she flicked her eyes to anything which would save her skin right now. She could feel the ship crumbling beneath her from the damage that had been dealt to it.

Schmidt was rather right about some things, mainly Erik's efforts in destruction. Hearing another groan she managed to run to the side and watch as a submarine came from the base and moved away. It moved away with Erik trailing after it as he latched onto the metallic pull. Liesel frowned and looked skywards. With a pout she stood on a sinking ship. Looking to the side she suddenly flinched from the jolt the ship gave, holding out her arms she walked to the side and hopped up onto the railing. Inhaling deeply, she exhaled. Stay on a sinking ship, or jump for it and hope for the best. Either way it was clear with Schmidt now gone, no one would pay mind to the ship, they'd pull it to a dock but that could be hours yet.

With another groan the ship gave a lurch and Liesel lost her footing and fell. So much for dwelling on the fact that she was doing something stupid. Her body hit the water with a splash and she sunk for a few seconds before she pushed herself against the current and attempted to put space between herself and the sinking vessel. Surfacing she glanced up at the falling metal around her and winced. This was not going to be pretty. Kicking her legs she pathetically swam, she could swim she just wasn't good at it. She thought she wasn't doing a too bad of a job...or at least she wasn't until something collided with the back of her head and everything went dark.

----

Edited: 7/June/2019

Reedited: 16/August/2021