The Dream Shifter

Chapter 204

Fumiko looked over at Haruo, ever quiet and detached. "What about you?" He stepped a little closer to the back of Yuki making his stance clear. "I see." She looked over at the others feeling good about the solution. "So Chiharu, Seiji and myself will locate Yumi and rescue Yori. Once we've done that we'll do everything we can to catch up to you."

Yuki stood up looking very serious. His eyes narrowed with his expression. "We'll meet back outside of the capital. Promise me!" He put out his hand with his open palm faced down jutted straight for them.

"Definitely!" replied Seiji slapping his hand down on top of Yuki's hand. He finished his response with an eager grin.

Fumiko added her hand to the center along with Saki. They gave a firm and agreeing nod to Yuki binding their promise. The others left themselves out not interested in the childish notion of the promise. Seiji did not take no for an answer and pulled Chiharu, complaining, to put her hand in. Saki followed up with Ayumi taking a card from Seiji's book and dragged her forcibly. Yuki pulled Haruo along, only slightly reluctant.

Yuki looked around at everyone seeing them all as a group, his friends. "It's a promise! Everyone comes back safe and we all put an end to this!" He smiled to everyone, feeling the infectious nature of Seiji's enthusiasm. It slowly built around to the others with even Chiharu looking a little flushed and Haruo less stern than before.

The conclusion to the story made Yumi feel warm. She could not help but smile a little herself as Fumiko finished. 'Everyone's together…I'm glad!' Yumi turned to Fumiko wanting to say something to her, but suddenly forgot her words. A stabbing pain ripped through her head making her scream aloud startling everyone. 'What's…happening…' The wave of pain passed as quickly as it came, but returned equally intense. She could no longer stand, the pain leaked through her muscles. Yumi collapsed to the ground unable to control the burning agony that coursed through her veins like fire.

Her hands crawled over her head and pulled at her hair. The source of the pain remained in her mind. It felt like a barbed wire rammed through her eyes and stirred in her brain. She scratched at her head trying to relieve the suffering. It shifted around bumped coarsely through her and splitting her skull. Through all of the screaming of her voice and the yelling pain, she heard a voice. 'Brother! Why are you in pain?'

The tent flap opened once more and shadows crawled along the ground. Although the sun made it a little difficult to cleanly make out those entering, he did not have to guess. First in to the tent was the man that interrogated him before. Next, the man, that gave him a new measuring stick for fear, entered. Last was an unknown, but tall woman dressed like the others he saw Yuki fight. She wore white and a very narrow piercing gaze. The woman carried a very unsettling pair of eyes, small nearly dots. Yori did not even know her name and he already felt the oppressive presence that she gave off in the room.

Simonides stepped in front to directly address Yori. He pressed his hand to the kid head and made sure they made eye contact. "This will be your last chance. The next time I'll make sure you suffer."

If Yori could lean back in his chair, he would have at that moment. The ominous presence of the man grew twofold for Yori, making him realizing that he should no longer have expectations on his limits. '…what do I do? Can I…' Yori felt a new layer of sweat cover him as his mind spun in fear. He did not know if he had the will to resist whatever they had planned. If the situation was normal, he thought that he might stand a chance. Yet there was nothing normal for him. They could literally make anything they needed to break him, that single thought spread unending fear through his body.

Time passed quickly at an unknown pace to Yori. He became entranced within his paralysis. Not until a heavy hand firmly gripped his shoulder did Yori snap back to reality. His eyes blinked removing the last image and updating the surroundings. The placement of everyone changed and he knew that he entered a different moment. The woman left his sight and the first man he spoke with held to the corner. Only the fear inducing man still held a spot similar to before. Yori suddenly gasped on air realizing that he had held taking in a breath.

The Atlantean leaned in a little further to Yori. "So you're silence means you plan to resist." He looked up over Yori's shoulder at the woman preparing behind him.

Still trying to catch up on everything, Yori did not even know how much time had passed. Everything suddenly seemed to move quickly beyond his pace. They forced him to follow with the pace they dictated to him. Realization came late, when he understood the meaning of the man's words. '…but I haven't even decided yet!' Yori felt like the path in front of him shifted and forced him down it with hands shoving him the entire way. He wanted more time, but felt guilty in thinking that he should need any for such a decision. Each second he hesitated, the longer that he hurt his sister. '…Yumi, I must hold strong…' His back stiffened a little and straightened as he prepared himself and presented his captors with a decisive stare.

'He's really going through it…didn't think it would come to this…' thought Simonides. He preferred to have just scared the kid into answering his questions rather than having to resort to such brutish methods. The full abilities of Athene had never been required in an interrogation. A simple intrusion would always be enough. Usually, the pain attributed to the resistance was enough to break those considered unbreakable. Simonides imagined that with the powers, a completely safe method without pain was possible, but interrogations rarely worried about the delicate nature of the individual. The sight of a teenager made him question his resolve to carry out, but he knew he needed to be serious to end this. 'They're all just kids and we've already fought them. This shouldn't be any different.' He gave a nod to Athene to begin.

Uncertainty to the degree of pain made Yori's anticipation rise further. He rolled his fingers roughly against his palms, doing anything to calm himself and prepare. The restricted movement of his body made the unease turn into a foul substance within his stomach that threatened to enter his throat. Yori swallowed roughly trying to keep everything down. '…sister…'

A red ring waded through the ground expanding beyond the tent to disappear from sight. The ground remained unchanged, but behind Yori's chair, a wide metal tube extruded up from the surface. As it continued to grow taller, a base formed and bolted itself into the ground for support. Once the tube reached shoulder height new extrusions erupted from the metal. Plastic like arms formed stretching out and gripping firmly to Yori's shoulder, the contact made his body jump however little possible. The top of the tube ended behind the head and spread out into a wider mouth opening. From the opening sprung more than a dozen wires with small circular discs attached to the end. Moving around like tentacles of a squid, the wires spread around all sides of Yori's head hovering in position.

On the final confirmation signal from the Captain, the wires dove in burying under the hair. Yori looked only slightly disturbed by the action and almost confused expecting something worse. However, he let up too early. His head jerked back suddenly in pain as all of the wires injected needles through his scalp and making pinging contact with his skull.

The slight scrapping of the needles against bone did not unnerve him the most from the experience. Rather, the echoing that pulsed through his brain threatened to unhinge him with sensation that he could not quantify. It did not feel like a headache or painful and certainly not pleasant, but closer to water being poured directly on his brain and blasted out to leave everything ringing. The sensation left him unbalanced and ready to fall over. He felt as though he hung on the side of a wall with only the chair that kept him from falling, yet knew it not to be true. His sense of direction changed again almost as quickly leaving him on a steep slope, the sudden shift made him want to throw up. 'This can't be all of it… disorientation, no it probably hasn't even begun…'

Assumption turned to certainty for Yori. The sensation calmed and his balance started to return, but a stabbing pain rammed through the back of his head. Yori coughed and gasped in surprise. It felt as though a spear had been plunged through his head and poked at the back of his eyes. He wanted to lift his hands up to feel if any of the pain he felt was real, but he could only hope. His body felt as though it emptied a liter of sweat in seconds as the pain continued in pulsing fashion so that he could not become even a little accustomed to it. It undulated through his brain cutting, stabbing, poking and scrapping as it dug deeper.

Further in the pain traveled, the more he knew it began to search for the answers that they sought. 'I can't…let them…' He did not even know if a scream came from his mouth as the digging continued. The more he wanted it to stop the worst it became. Yori was certain he had to be screaming. The screeching in his brain ripped him from his all of senses of reality with only pain as the only feeling left. '…Yumi!'

A stabbing pain ripped through her head making her scream aloud startling everyone. 'What's…happening…' The wave of pain passed as quickly as it came, but returned equally intense. She could no longer stand, the pain leaked through her muscles. Yumi collapsed to the ground unable to control the burning agony that coursed through her veins like fire.

Her hands crawled over her head and pulled at her hair. The source of the pain remained in her mind. It felt like a barbed wire rammed through her eyes and stirred in her brain. She scratched at her head trying to relieve the suffering. It shifted around bumped coarsely through her and splitting her skull. Through all of the screaming of her voice and the yelling pain, she heard a voice. 'Brother! Why are you in pain?'

'…Yumi!'

Yumi's head snapped back and her eyes opened wide, but the sky did not enter her vision. She saw a lowly lit tent and two figures in front of her. It felt like she sat in a chair and an oppressive force slammed down around her. 'Where am I?' Another bolt of pain through her head made her jump a little. '…the pain…' Her vision turned down seeing legs rattling at the legs of a chair she had never seen before with a body that she recognized, but knew not to be her. It only took moments to make the connection. 'Yori!' In that instant, she felt that she stood next to him and saw everything. She had finally returned to him and felt safe again. However, darkness fell over her suddenly and she lost sight of everything. 'Yori! Where did you go! Come back! Brother!' Yumi threw out her hands trying to grab on to him, but found nothing. Emptiness surrounded her and she was alone, again.

A dot of a light sprung free from the endless void to give her direction. She stretched up towards it, as it grew wider to fill her view. Yumi jerked forward suddenly in darkness again screaming. "Yori!" The darkness around her did not feel as impenetrable as before and gave her warmth. She looked around seeing a fire set and the outlines of her friends. "Huh?"