Jack stared after him, eyes narrowed in concern. He'd seen how scared he looked when he'd run our like that. Something was up, and he had a bad feeling he knew what it was.

Kevin trudged alone through the woods, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans. He couldn't stop thinking - even if he wanted to. What was happening to him? Why now?
    He forced himself to calm down. He could practically hear the words General Ellis had drilled into his head through his years of training. "If you ever get scared - ever panic - always just remember this one thing: Sing something. Music is nature's painkiller. That's how the Commander got so good... Uh, don't tell him I told you that, though."
   Kevin took a deep breath. "Okay... Pull yourself together, Murphey..." He muttered. "Sing something... Anything." He racked his brain for a song, and finally locked onto the one thing he could never forget - even in a crisis.
    "Cross my heart and hope to die, burn my lung, and curse my eyes." He sang quietly. "I've lost control and I don't want it-"
    'Oh, but I think you do...'
    Kevin cried out and stopped dead in his tracks. "Stop it, Xandra!" He shouted.
    Xandra's voice chuckled in his mind. 'You really should be my friend, you know... You would like it.'
    "Never." Kevin hissed.
    'Why not give it a try? Isn't that what your pops always told you?' Kevin froze as Xandra continued slyly. 'Don't knock it till you try it, Ken.'
    "Get out of my head!" Kevin snapped.
    'You're fighting a battle you can't win, Murphey...' Xandra teased. 'Why not listen to your father? Isn't that what he'd want?'
    "The Sky Army started out fighting a battle they couldn't win, too." Kevin growled. "I'm not playing your stupid game, Xandra."
    "Kevin?"
    Kevin's eyes widened. He spun around and his fears were confirmed. Jack was standing there a few feet away, looking very concerned.
    'Oh, but I think you are...' Kevin winced and let out a small gasp as a sharp, ongoing pain shot through his head.
    Jack took a step forward, but Kevin held up a hand to stop him. "N-No!" He said. "Stay back!"
    Jack's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Why? Kevin, are you okay? What's up?"
    'You feel so much affection for him... Tell, him Kevin... What's wrong?' Xandra whispered. 'Tell him... Or I will."
   Kevin's head snapped up. "Don't you dare." He hissed.
   Jack looked taken aback. "Huh? Don't what?"
   Kevin grimaced and looked down as the pain in his head intensified.
    'Ah, well... I suppose I'll have to myself...'
    'Stop it... Stop it!' Kevin thought, squeezing his eyes shut. 'Stop it, stop it-'
   "Stop it!" Kevin cried.
   Jack's eyes narrowed. "Kevin, what's gotten into you?" He asked.
   Suddenly, Kevin froze. He remained perfectly still. Then he straightened up. He glanced down at him hand and smirked. Then he eyed Jack.
    Jack didn't like that look in his eyes. It didn't look natural. "Jack, run." Kevin hissed.
    Jack's eyes narrowed in confusion and he took an instinctive step back, but as always, Kevin was faster. He pulled his knife out of his sheath, leapt forward, and slammed Jack into the tree behind him all in one fluid movement.
    "Kevin, what are you-?!" Jack stopped abruptly as Kevin put the knife up to his neck. His eyes widened. "Kevin... What's happening?"
    Kevin glared up at him. "You know what's happening, Stillman..." He replied darkly, his voice wavering. Kevin winced and looked down, closing his eyes tight. Then he looked up again determinedly, his green eyes filled with... No, wait, Kevin's eyes were brown, not green Jack would know. He spent enough time staring.
    Jack's eyes widened. He didn't know the hell the moron done it, but Kevin had gone and gotten possessed. And he knew what it felt like to threaten your friends under the influence of another.
    "Run...!" Kevin hissed.
    Jack shook his head, eyes still wide. "No way." He said. "There is no way I'm letting you make the same mistakes I did." He glanced down at the knife and smirked. "Y'know, I don't know who's in that head of yours, Murphey, but whoever it is isn't very clever."
   "Says who?" Kevin growled, and Jack knew he'd lost control.
   "Well... If you really knew Kevin... You'd know he doesn't have a knife..." Jack took the handle of the knife and pushed it into his chest and smirked. "But he does have a trick knife."
    Before Kevin - or whoever had taken him - could react (which should have stood for something right there because Kevin had expert reflexes), Jack spun around and shoved Kevin as hard as he could into the tree, slamming his head into the wood.
    He fell limp to the ground and laid still. Jack sighed and placed the trick knife in his own sheath, then knelt down by his friend and the two disappeared in a flash of purple.
    When they reappeared in the Jeck living room, Aaron was the first to react. He sat bolt upright.  Venom's head shot up and her eyes widened.
   Before anyone could say anything, however, Jack spoke first.
   "Kevin fucked up."

"So let's recap here..." Seto said. "You're telling me Kevin was acting fine before and then he just left and you followed him. But when you found him, he was talking to himself?"
    Jack adjusted the laptop screen as he replied. "Yeah, he said stuff like, 'Don't you dare' and 'Stop it' but I don't think he was talking to me."
    "That doesn't make any sense." Venom said from where she sat by Aaron on the other side of the room. "Who else would he be talking to?"
    "Was that Venom?" Seto asked. Jack nodded. Seto nodded back as he answered. "Well, the thing is, I think he was under control by someone."
    "That's what I figured." Jack said. "He pinned me up against a tree and used his trick knife as a weapon - that's how I managed to knock him out. If he'd been himself, I never would've been able to beat him." He glanced at Logan. "Don't tell him I said that." Logan smiled knowingly and looked out the window, away from where Jack and Thalia were video phoning Seto in the Infirmary back at the base.
    "Okay, so I need to know something. Did anything strange happen to him recently? Something that could've triggered some sort of mind-link?"
   "I don't-"
   "At the squid base." Thalia said, looking down. "While you guys were busting Ethan out, Kevin and I were captured by Xandra's men. She didn't hurt us or anything, but while we were with her, she persuaded Kevin to 'embrace it' and he lifted a candlestick without touching it, but it looked like it hurt him somehow."
    "I see." Seto sighed and nodded. "I've always sensed something kind of odd with Kevin, but now I know - he's telekinetic. But it's more like a sort of virus, something he wasn't born with... It was triggered when Xandra did that thing to him. I wouldn't doubt it if it actually does hurt him."
   "Well how can we get Xandra out if him?" Logan asked.
   Seto sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, lost in thought. "Well... First of all, he's telekinetic not telepathic. This shouldn't be a problem so there has to be some sort of telepathic field that would link the two. That's probably why she captured you two in the first place. What you have to do is get to the field and destroy it. It should look like a sort of greenish, glowing boulder, about three feet tall. Should be nearby."
     "Thanks, Seto, but even if we do destroy this thing, who's to say Xandra won't try again?" Venom asked.
    "I was getting to that." Seto replied. "See, if you destroy it just right, then Xandra won't be able to do it again because it'll kick out the part of her mind that can control him."
    "Alright, well, how should we destroy it?" Jack asked.
    Seto smirked. "Blow that shit up."
    Thalia shrugged mildly. "Well, that sounds simple enough."
    "Well here's the catch." Seto said. "Although she can't keep it in her base because it'll mess with her soldier's heads, it'll be in the middle of the woods. But like I said, it'll mess with her soldier's heads, so she'll probably have some sort of monster guarding it."
    Jack sighed. "Perfect."
    "Hang on, how are we even gonna get TNT in the first place?" Logan asked.
    "Well..." Venom opened her satchel and pulled out a few sticks of dynamite. "I kinda sorta stole a few from the D'Hiss..."
    Thalia grinned. "I'm so glad you're back."
    Venom simply smiled and placed them back in her satchel.
    "Right. Anything else?" Seto asked.
    "I have a mild headache." Logan said jokingly.
     "Ice pack." Seto replied. He hesitated for a moment longer, but no one said anything else. "Cool. When do you guys expect to be home?"
    "Well, our ship leaves for Colwald tomorrow. I guess it should be a week after that." Thalia replied.
    "Awesome. I'll inform the Commander of your progress." Seto said. "So good luck and I'll see you soon." He winked and turned off his webcam. Jack closed the laptop and looked up. "Okay. Who's staying and who's leaving?"
    "One of us should stay behind in case Kevin wakes up." Thalia said.
    "I'm the only one who can beat him in a fist fight." Venom answered. "I'll stay."
    "And I'm coming with you." Aaron said.
    "Aaron, no, you should stay here." Thalia replied.
    "Not a chance." Aaron said stubbornly. "Venom and Kathy can handle this. I'm coming with you."
    "No offense, big guy, but last I checked, you don't know how to use a weapon." Venom said.
    "You have no idea - I can't just stay behind!" Aaron protested.
    "You can and you will." Mrs. Murphey ordered. "I am not risking the safety of another one of my children today." She looked up at Thalia, Jack, and Logan. "Please, be careful."
    Thalia smiled. "Don't worry, Mrs. M, we will."
    "Why don't you just wait until morning?" Kathy asked.
    "Because the Raymond leaves at dawn. We have to go now or not at all. And the latter is not an option." Logan picked his shield up from where it rested against the wall. "C'mon."