Sebastian put his hand on Lee's slender shoulder. As always happened when he touched an injured person, his healing energy automatically flowed into Lee's body. As always the energy was cold, so cold that it burned like a flood of ice rushing through his veins and into hers. As always the life force that was carried into her body from his own gave him a dim awareness of what she was feeling, like an echo of her senses and he felt the pain in her shoulder rapidly diminishing. Unlike normal, it all seemed to be happening really really fast. He had barely touched her when he felt a tug at the energy, like an over eager dog pulling at its leash, about ready to break out of its owner's grasp. Surprised, and slightly alarmed, Sebastian pulled his hand away from her shoulder a moment later. Normally it wouldn't have been enough time to fully heal her injury, but...

A series of loud crashes sounded from inside the building, shaking it down to its simply constructed foundation. The building couldn't take the abuse and instants later, with a creak and a groan part of the tin roof caved inward.

“S'blood,” Sebastian swore as first Lee rushed into the building before he could even check to see if she was fully healed. This was bad. Yes, Tarin was in there, but didn't she realize that the spirits may not be finished tearing the building to pieces?

“Wait,” he called after her. Sara didn't wait either. She stared into the sun for a moment, as if it held the solution to their problem, then followed Lee into the wreckage. Sebastian trotted after then both, pausing at the doorway to catch his breath. Why did he suddenly feel so old? Why was his head spinning as dizzily as if he had healed an army rather than one young woman?

>>>“He’s over here. ... About 10 feet in front, 8, 7. Straight in front.”

Were had found him, despite her eyes having constricted to slits. She should have only been able to see sun spots, but she had used some sort of sixth sense it seemed to locate their comrade under the rubble.

“Sara, quickly! Is there any easier way to dig him out from outside the building? We shouldn't risk getting everyone trapped if the ghosts have more destruction in store for us.”

The table had hurt. The table had really hurt and moments after it hit him, Tarin found himself playing a game of "reinflate the lungs" as he laid on his back beneath the offending piece of furniture. WHY did spirits have to forget that the living were so breakable?

As he gasped for air, Tarin saw rubble falling down on either side of the table, and he barely had time to gasp, "Oh shit..." before the whole ceiling was coming down over his head. Stupid spirits...stupid, stupid spirits. Tarin was still struggling for his breath when he heard the voices, he tried to call out to say he was fine, but his voice failed him again and he closed his eyes focusing on getting the air into and out of his lungs.

Lee was frantic, of course, she was always frantic when things like this happened...and Sarah was there too. Then they were talking about ways to get him out.

"Hey!" he called out, still winded but able to push his voice out. "I'm over here...under the table...I'm...I'm okay!" he added, reaching a hand up to his head and sighing with relief when he found his sunglasses intact. Then a head popped through the rubble.

"AH!" Tarin yelped, trying to sit up and scoot back at the same time and only succeeding in bumping his head on the table in the process. A few curse words and some fierce head rubbing later, Tarin found himself face to face with the female spirit who had been so helpful before.

"You know..." he said, swallowing, and waving his hand to try and clear some of the dust that was still floating in the air, "You guys really need to learn to be more careful when you're around the living."

The woman simply shrugged "We've never been worried about their well being." she said, in such a nonchalant way that Tarin actually shivered in spite of the heat. "They cared nothing for us...and sometimes we need to vent our frustrations. You weren't permanently harmed though.

Tarin shook his head, "Did you get that psycho under control?" he asked, starting to pull at some of the rubble that surrounded the table, "My wife and friends are out there and I'd rather none of them leave with more holes than they came in with."

"He's restrained," the spirit woman said, and Tarin nodded, "And the others have decided that since their room is gone, they'll come along to help in the search. We're all fairly sure that we'll know when we're near our graves."

"Fine." Tarin said, "If I give you a little power, do you think you could go out there and let them know where I am?"

The spirit nodded and Tarin concentrated, reaching up to put the sunglasses on top of his head as he re-established the link with the woman and channeled power into her. "You'd better go back through now, 'cause when you're solid you won't be able to phase it."

Up she went and Tarin concentrated more, pushing energy into the spirit until he was sure she had to be corporeal.

"The spirit speaker is here." Tarin heard the voice speak. "We're restless and would like to move on from this place. Could you please hurry in freeing him?"

Beautiful. Tarin couldn't help but think as he continued to try and push his way through the rubble surrounding his little cave, she had all the tact he usually expected of a spirit.

"Yup! In here! Safe and sound..." he called out again, just to emphasize the point.

“He’s over here.”

Lee paused in her digging for a moment to turn her head and look back at Sara. Who was indicating a spot a ways away from where she was currently digging. For a moment, Lee wondered how Sara knew where Tarin could be in all that wreckage, but then pushed the thought from her mind; it really didn't matter how Sara knew, it really only mattered whether she was right.

But at that moment, Lee heard Tarin's voice, though it was muffled. At least it did sound like it came from somewhere over in the direction that Sara had indicated, so she was simply going to follow her directions until she heard Sebastian's voice behind them, asking if there was a way to get to Tarin from the outside because of the risk of the spirits doing more damage.

So Lee paused. Lee looked around the room. Other than a little bit of rubble falling from the destroyed wall, barely more than sand, Lee didn't see any movement, nothing being tossed or thrown. And nothing being hurled toward them.

"I think it's as safe as we could hope for," Lee said, starting to slowly and carefully make her way across the unevenness of the rubble toward where Sara had said that Tarin was. "If they were still going to, or still had the energy to be destructive like that, I'd bet we'd be seeing it right now."

Lee was probably about half way there, at least if Sara was right about where Tarin was, when a woman suddenly appeared about five feet in front of her. Lee jumped. And lost her footing on the rubble, her left knee hitting a brick as she tried and failed to catch herself before she went completely down.

Lee knew that there were spirits here, that was no surprise, but hadn't been expecting to see one become corporeal like this. Wasn't part of the reason Tarin had told her to leave because he couldn't make them corporeal with how violent they were being?

"Damn it, Tarin!" Lee exclaimed after hearing what the spirit had to say. Climbing back to her feet, Lee shook her head and continued on her way. At least it appeared Sara had been right in saying where Tarin was. "A little warning would have been nice!"

At least the spirit then disappeared. Well, not completely, Lee knew that it must still be around there somewhere, but she couldn't see it any longer. A good thing since a moment later Lee reached about a foot away from where the spirit had been standing, and she felt a spike in the energy she was siphoning.

Which caused Lee to roll her eyes at herself before she bent down to start digging again. Why hadn't she thought of that before? She hadn't needed to simply just start digging and hope to find Tarin, she hadn't needed to have Sara tell her where she thought he was. If she had actually been paying attention, she could have used her siphoning from the start, figured out what direction she felt the energy coming from and went toward it since Tarin had been the only one (at least living) in the room.

Tossing bricks out of the way, moving boards and pieces of metal, part of Lee's mind realized that she would have been sweating then from the exertion if she hadn't already been sweating because of the heat.

But finally, Lee managed to get an actual hole opened up and she saw a space. A space in which a moment later Lee saw Tarin. Even though she had heard Tarin's voice before that point, heard him say that he was alright, Lee couldn't stop the sigh of relief that came when she actually saw him there.

"Are you ok?" She asked him through the opening. Yeah, it didn't matter that he had already said that he was, Lee needed to ask him now that she could see him. Waiting a moment for Tarin to reply, Lee started digging again, working to widen the hole enough that he could get through.

“Sara, quickly! Is there any easier way to dig him out from outside the building? We shouldn't risk getting everyone trapped if the ghosts have more destruction in store for us.”

Sara paused. Her mind was tracing each path that each of the fallen debris had made but she couldn’t tell the exact shapes of what had fallen. There were spaces between each path she could make out, that hinted to her at the different size, but other than that she couldn’t see and the more she focused on individual paths and objects, the less she could really see of the entire mess. “I can’t tell that much.”

She turned her head to look over her shoulder at Sebastian but the move was more out of habit than anything else. Seeing as her eyes weren’t in use. He’d sounded different to her than he had a moment ago climbing to the roof. Ok one thing at a time. Tarin.. .. ..

Lee had moved to be closer and help dig with energy Sara didn’t even know she was capable of having, when the woman ghost made her little handy dandy statement.

"We're restless and would like to move on from this place. Could you please hurry in freeing him?"

The statement wasn’t a tone Sara really liked but Hey. “At least she said please.” As quickly as the physical path had appeared in Sara’s 6th awareness it disappeared. If Sara hadn’t known Tarin’s power had something to do with spirits she would be finding that spooking but then again, there wasn’t much more spookier you could get when inanimate objects decided to cave in around you. Speaking of Tarin, it seemed Lee had things covered. So Sara turned her attention to Seastian. She turned around and carefully picked her way to him. The way she had came. Her hand utilized the wall for balance and steadied her upper body.

“Are you ok?” Sara asked as she rubbed her eyes that were starting to ache.

As Sebastian caught the breath he shouldn't have lost, Lee assured them that the building was probably safe now. The absence of any more crashes added a sense of validity to her hypothesis. Things seemed to have settled down for now. Where ever Tarin was under all this, he seemed to have gotten control of things.

Lee continued digging frantically in the area Sara had indicated. Perhaps it would be best to get the rubble moved as quickly as possible, just in case the spirits weren't quite done causing mayhem. Anxious to get out again, Sebastian moved further into the building, stumbling once in part from dizziness that usually only accompanied over using his healing ability and in part because an unexpected piece of debris caught at his foot. Luckily his tail was an excellent tool for catching his balance again, and he didn't fall flat on his face. He was picking his way more carefully this time toward Lee when suddenly an extra person was standing in his pathway. As real as life, there was a woman standing in the room with them that had not been visible to them before.

We are restless, she said. Please hurry, she added.

Sebastian stopped abruptly where he stood at her appearance. All these years he had wondered about death, had studied countless religions and analyzed numerous view points on the subject. Now here before him was someone that could talk to him, someone that had died. If it was possible to speak to the dead, for them to hear and interact with the living, then what else was possible? Did these spirits know the answer to the question of what happens next? Did every person that died become a spirit like this woman?

Sebastian thought of the many loved ones that he had lost. Perhaps he had spent too much time recently lingering on old memories recently; the memories of their faces came easily to his minds eye in that moment. If he could never get to where they were, was it possible that they could come back to him?

Sebastian opened his mouth, unsure of exactly what he wanted to ask the spirit, but before he could speak she had vanished again. At least, her solidity vanished. It was likely that she was still there in some other form, capable of watching but not interacting. The immortal blinked. He was being sentimental about spirits that had likely moved on to new bodies or new realms ages ago while a real live person was waiting to be rescued. He shoved the sentimental thoughts to the back corner of his mind to worry about later. For now he had a job to do.

He reached the spot where Lee was digging, and lifted one of the pieces of debris out of the way. His arms were shaky, and the piece felt heavier than normal, but he was able to shift it out of the way. There was an opening just large enough for a hand beyond that piece. A large piece of wall slanted over the opening. If he could push up on that, the opening could possibly get wide enough for someone to crawl through.

The unicorn man leaned against the wall with his back and pushed with his legs. His back and legs complained, but he kept pushing. His strength felt like it was gone, but he wanted to get Tarin and the rest of the group out of the building before it fell down around their ears. New sweat beads formed on his face and rolled their way down toward his chin as he put all of his effort into pushing the wall with a grunt. His breaths were labored, but he kept pushing. He couldn't tell from his angle, but he thought the hole was getting bigger. Just a little more...

Tarin hadn’t realized he was claustrophobic, but the longer he spent in the little cave created by the table and the rubble from the cave-in, the smaller it seemed to get. He’d sent the spirit up what suddenly felt like hours ago. Was the air getting thicker? Was it already getting hotter in there? Lee yelled, something about warning being nice, and Tarin figured the spirit had passed on the message…but if it had, why the heck wasn’t anyone getting him out?

Suddenly, the rubble around him started shifting and slowly…very slowly…a hole opened up in the debris. “Good, right there!” Tarin yelled, and started pulling debris his way too and sighing in relief when a trickle of sunlight started to stream through a small hole in the debris. The hole widened and Tarin manoeuvred himself until he could see through it, the whole group was there, working to dig him out. Tarin would have felt all warm and fuzzy if he wasn’t already so panicked and hot.

The guy with the horn was moving though, bracing himself against one particularly large piece of debris and pushing. It wasn’t budging very fast though, so Tarin crouched in the little cave, bracing his shoulder against the piece of wall and pushing too. Then Lee must have grabbed on and pushed as well because the wall shifted and a much larger hole appeared in the debris. Taking his chance, Tarin scrambled forward, not worried in the least about the little scrapes and cuts he was getting on his hands as he moved.

He was out. He was absolutely covered in dust and his hands were shaking a little, but he was out. The spirits were there, the angry one from before looking sulky and confused against one of the walls, and the woman who had been helpful was just to the right of the group. “Thanks.” Tarin said, and she nodded, then back to the group, “Thanks” he said again, “Guess I brought the house down…” he grinned, then looked at Lee…was that blood on her shirt? The grin immediately faded and Tarin scrambled over to where she was, “What the hell happened?”


~Time Jump~


It had taken them some time to get themselves organized to a point where they could leave the building and Tarin was anything but happy that Lee had already sustained an injury. Apparently Sebastian was a healer though, and Lee was fine. Tarin had a slightly new attitude though, they were going to be more careful…and he would have given anything for a shower.


The building materials from the collapsed town hall had fallen in a fine dust that was still coating pretty much every exposed piece of skin on Tarin’s body…his clothes, his hat, his sunglasses, and his hair. The sweat on his body had wet it, and it was drying into a crackling paste that itched.

Once the town hall had collapsed and Tarin had rounded up the spirits and gotten them under control, though, the townspeople had come out of their houses. First to yell at them in Spanish, but slowly they got more helpful. Probably because they figured out that helping them find the bodies was the quickest way to get them out. Tarin didn’t care, he was starting to get irritated with the situation, so by the time they made their way, walking into the jungle on a rough hewn path, Tarin was irritated.

“Okay…they said it’s about a mile in this direction.” He said, turning to look and make sure the spirits were still in tow, as well as the rest of the group. “Once we’re there…I’m not sure what’s going to happen…but hopefully it’ll be quick. Then we can get back and tackle the school.”

Tarin looked around at Sara, “They said that the guerrillas scout around here sometimes. So if your eyes are good to go, you could probably take to the trees or run ahead to scout if you want.”

To Sebastian he said, “Why don’t you stick with us? I’m not much use in a fight, especially if these guys aren’t going to necessarily be cooperative and I don’t know what kind of energy Lee’s got, but unless she’s charged…” he let the statement trail off and looked at her, “I think we’ll need someone around who knows what they’re doing.”

Lee breathed another sigh of relief once they finally managed to get Tarin out from under the rubble. It took a combined effort, her, Sebastian, and Tarin digging from the inside, but they had done it. And he appeared to be alright other than a couple small cuts and scrapes, and appearing to be completely covered by dust and dirt. That was rather remarkable considering how much of the room had fallen down on top of him.

Within moments of Tarin's eyes falling on her, Lee saw the grin that had been on his face since getting out disappear to be replaced by a look of horror. And then he was scrambling the short distance to her.

And asking what happened.

Lee frowned, what the hell was he talking about, she wondered for a moment. He was the one who had been in the building collapse, he'd been the one to have a roof fall on him. Why was he asking what had happened to her?

Following Tarin's eyes, Lee realized that she was standing there in a tank top, no longer wearing the outer shirt that had been protecting her from the sun and the bugs. And saw the blood that mixed with her sweat and drying where it had run down her left arm and on her shirt. Oh, right. That.

"I'm fine, Tarin," Lee said, looking into Tarin's eyes, trying to make him believe that she really was fine. "It's alright. Sebastian fixed me up, so I'm good now. Ok?

"Really Tarin," Lee continued. "I'm fine. We can talk about this later if you really need to, but don't we have work to do now?"

~~~~~~~~~~~

After they had made their way back out of the town hall, the now destroyed hall, Lee had used some of that time to grab a new shirt and repack her bag. The shirt she had been wearing was pretty much garbage with the rip in it and the blood that was covering half of it. But, she realized, with a quick rinsing out to get rid of the sweat, the other, non-bloodied half of the shirt could be used as bandaging if necessary. So, while Tarin was turned, dealing with the spirits or talking to someone else, Lee wasn't exactly sure, she pulled her small knife out of her bag and cut the shirt, stuffing the cleanish material back in.

The bottle she had dropped was a lost cause, though, completely emptied on the ground by this point.

But finally, they were all ready, and so slinging her bag back up onto her shoulders, Lee followed along, into the jungle. This was the reason they were here, but that didn't mean that Lee had to like it. Even more so once Tarin started talking about the guerrillas that were often found in the area. Wasn't he worried?

He was directing, giving instructions for what each member of the party could do, and then he looked at her as he mentioned that she wasn't a whole lot of use unless she was energized. Seeing Tarin turn to look at him as he said that, she simply shook her head. When would she have had the chance for that, anyway? It wasn't like she was going to take any more energy than she absolutely had to from Tarin with what he needed to do, and she hadn't exactly been around many other people.

So it was looking like, with Sara out scouting, trying to make sure they didn't run into any soldiers in the first place, their main line of defence was a healer.

Great.

"If we do run into anyone," Lee said quietly as they continued along. "Hopefully they're in really small groups. If it's only a couple, and we can take care of them, I'll also be able to get more energy."

Once they had dug, pushed, and thrown the fallen debris out of the way, and Tarin was free, Sara found a place outside that was quiet. Sara found a place where she could sit with her pack. Her back was against the wall of the partially caved in town hall and she listened to the town people and the others as things were sorted out. Sara could be helping, but she really wasn’t that much of a people person when it comes to things like this. Plus she had a more pressing issue at the moment. She needed to get her sight back and she hadn’t exactly understood what it was in her head, that turned the new 6th awareness on, and her sight off, and vise versa.

Sara hugged her legs up to her chest and her chin rested on her knees as people passed, her, and walked around. She sensed then, could hear, them and smell them, and where they moved there was a path that was traced in her head. Adding to the jumble of paths that were already there with enough confusion to leave her with a pounding head ache. The fact that her eyes ached didn’t help. Her eyes actually felt like she had pulled a muscle and was still using it.

Under normal circumstances she could have closed her eyes. Even now, she wanted to. She wanted to close off one of her working senses and pushed the palms of her paw like hands against the sockets of her eyes. As if that helped, but there was nothing that could turn off this 6th awareness and the more she squeezed at her eyes, and scrunched her face, the more the paths brightened. If they could brighten, and then that pulled muscle in Sara’s eyes screamed against her raw nerves, making her jaw clench. Sara could deal with pain. For a large portion of her life, she had time to become accustomed to it, however she was so much more used to pain numbing at an accelerated pace.

The problem with pain is it makes you want to tense up and then it hurts worst. She was all of a sudden caught in her own battle to make herself relax. That was about all she remembered was that her sight returned when she managed to relax.

.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

They finally seemed to have things figured out and their spiritual leader from a different level, had a plan. Sort of.

“They said that the guerrillas scout around here sometimes. So if your eyes are good to go, you could probably take to the trees or run ahead to scout if you want.”

Sara glanced at Tarin as she swung her own back pack to her shoulders and secured it to her back so it was stream lined against her. “That sounds like a plan to me.” She nodded. “I’ll travel a quarter of a mile a head then loop back to make sure you’re the path is clear.” Sara found herself looking over Tarin’s shoulder, where he had looked only she could see nothing but the buildings and people past where she knew Tarin must have been looking. “Can you send a spirit with me? None of us thought a head to bring any communications devices. A spirit is going to be the fastest way for me to send a message back.”

With that, Sara took off. A couple of the locals gasped as Sara sprinted by but Sara didn’t take any heed to them. In a matter of seconds her tail had disappeared around a tree and on the other side of the tree, Sara had swung her legs over the lowest thick branch. Once Sara was off of the ground, she hardly made a sound. Sara followed the branch, in two big strides, till she hopped to the next, getting a little higher off of the ground.

Like Sara said. She traveled out a head of the mane group. First looping to the right, and then to the left as she worked her way forward. Sara’s movements practically flew over the branches, and when that was combined with the fact Sara’s five original senses were going wild, and as much as she wanted to stop and admire the movement of the birds in the distance, or the frogs, and lizards, that alluded her until the second before she nearly stepped on them.

Sara reached the first quarter of a mile a head, and looped back. Just like she said she would do. Sara traveled back, just far enough that she could see the rest of the group threw the branches to be sure that they were headed on the path she had been watching for. She stood there for a moment, watching, before she turned and with a flick of her tail, she was off again.

It was a little creepy to think that she had been being followed by what was basically a ghost. Then again, Sara wasn’t sure what she really should be afraid of. She went her entire life being told that ghosts weren’t real and still watching ghost movies. Then she gets assigned for this mission and up until the roof to the town hall caved in, part of her was still thinking, ‘Yeah right. Real ghosts.’

Sara’s mind had started drifting when her sense of smell yanked her attention back to what she was doing. Gun powder.

It took a few more seconds to triangulate what her twitching nose was smelling with the direction that the wind was coming from. Her movement was suddenly much more serious. Much more concentrated on not making a sound and stepping softly so as not to rustle the leaves on the branches that supported her weight.

There were the Guerillas. Just a pair of them though in Sara’s opinion they might as well of been roaches, Where you saw one, or two in this case, there had to be more. For now these two were what Sara had to deal with for now. Both were male. Both had machetes both had assault riffles. Great.. .. ..

Slowly, Sara crouched on the tree branch and tried to decide exactly what to do about the men. Very quietly she started talking to the spirit she expected to be with her. If she was talking to herself, she was about to feel really stupid. “Get back to the rest and tell them there are a pair of guerillas on the right of their path, so have them stop and get down. When I’m done, lead them to me.”

That was an incredible odd feeling talking to someone Sara couldn’t actually see. She wasn’t even sure that the ‘ghost’ was going to listen to her and do what she said other than the fact that the ghost knew they were here to help. So it was a sort of faith that relied on what Sara knew they wanted. What was in their best interests.

Sara’s tail twitched as she watched the men pass below her, and she waited till they had reached the base of her tree before she dropped down, lightly on her feet, right behind them. This needed to be silent.

Faster than most people could even See, Sara’s hand shot forward across the back of the head of the man on the right. His head bounced of her hand, off of the trunk of the tree and then he was out cold.

The second turned to yell out only to have Sara shove a moss covered stick in his mouth. His gun was swinging towards Sara and she grabbed it by the center, to keep the barrel from leveling off in her direction. It was then that he pulled the trigger and the shots rang out as they sank themselves into the trees… So much for being silent. Frustrated, Sara rocked back so that she was rolling backwards on the ground. The riffle still tight in one hand, and the rifle’s strap that was around the man’s neck and shoulder pulled him forward, into her rising foot. In the middle of rolling back, Sara pulled one leg under the man’s arm and the other across his neck to hold him in place, from the back, and she started using the rifle’s strap to cut off his blood, and air, supply. When he was out she released him, giving him a kick to the ribs to make him roll away from her. Sebastian, Lee, and Tarin probably heard the gun shots, but Sara was more worried about who else could have heard it.

Sebastian thought he had been sweaty before, when they had simply been walking through the jungle. Now they had hiked, moved building debris, and were hiking again. The store bought clothes were getting more and more uncomfortable against his skin. The shirt was useless, as it was entirely soaked as well as full of dust from the building debris. The shorts had far too many stiff seams rubbing against uncomfortable places for Sebastian's taste. As they started their second trek, this time following a spirit as a guide, he considered ditching his human skin altogether so he wouldn't have to deal with clothes at all.

>>>“Why don’t you stick with us? I’m not much use in a fight, especially if these guys aren’t going to necessarily be cooperative and I don’t know what kind of energy Lee’s got, but unless she’s charged…” he let the statement trail off and looked at her, “I think we’ll need someone around who knows what they’re doing.”

Inwardly Sebastian sighed. That probably meant he should stay human shaped. It was a little difficult to communicate without human vocal chords. Though it would be so much nicer to be trotting around unencumbered by clothing for a little while.

Outwardly, he nodded. His job would be defense, he could handle that. If a situation arose, he could easily handle himself. The difficult part would be to protect Tarin and Lee from any unexpected bullets. Guns were a weapon that he despised more than any other, because there was so little he could do against them. He was fast on his feet, but bullets flew faster even that that. He could heal bullet wounds in others, but if they were well aimed, there was nothing he could do to heal death.

“Do me a favor. If you hear gunshots take cover right away.”

As they walked, Sara roamed ahead of them. Sebastian took the spot at tail end of the group, so he could keep an eye in their rear while Tarin followed the invisible guidance of the spirit. At least he was feeling a little better now. Walking was slightly more restful than heavy lifting and his energy was starting to return after Lee's interesting healing.

“What did you mean by 'charged'?” The pale skinned unicorn shifter questioned as he followed behind the couple. “I'm afraid I don't understand either of your powers very well.”

...

A few minutes later, Sebastian winced as gunshots rang out. While he wasn't afraid, he wasn't particularly happy about it either. If Tarin and Lee weren't already ducking for cover behind a nearby fallen tree that was partially hidden by ferns, then Sebastian would be tackling them from behind so they would all three tumble in that general direction together.

“Shh, listen,” he cautioned them as he strained to hear what was happening around them in the jungle. At the sound of the shots, the nearby birds had momentarily ceased their noises. It was just long enough for Sebastian to hear a voice shout from their left, the opposite direction the shots had come from. It sounded like reinforcements were on their way.

Sebastian had a decision to make. If he stayed right next to the pair, he could heal them the moment they were injured, if such an event were to occur. If he left them in the shelter of the fallen tree and joined Sara in fending off the groups of gunmen, he could perhaps keep the guns away from those in their party that couldn't heal. They were the important ones on this mission, the ones actually doing the job of quieting the spirits. He and Sara were only here for protection, to make sure nothing happened to Tarin and Lee. He had made his decision. They would be safest if he could draw the attention away from their hiding place.

“What ever you do, stay hidden,” Sebastian whispered. “I'm going to draw them away if I can. If things quiet down and Sara and I aren't back yet, I think you could continue along to the graves.”

Quietly, Sebastian extracted himself from the tangle of plants and disappeared into the forest. He was lighter on his feet and quicker than most humans, even in his bipedal form. If he had shifted, he would have been even faster. With his white skin he was almost like a ghost whispering through the forest. There were real ghosts as well, but only Tarin would be able to tell where those were.

He headed toward where he had heard the voices, and soon heard a group of what sounded like two people moving up ahead. From the way they moved, it was evident that they were at home in the jungle. This area was their corner of the world, the jungle their backyard. As Sebastian came up behind them, he saw one of them pointing to something ahead of them. The other took aim.

Well, that would never do...

Sara was cool with the idea of running ahead and Tarin watched as she leapt into the trees. He hadn’t necessarily been comfortable with the idea of sending the spirit ahead, especially in corporeal form, but the idea had more merit than he could discount. So concentrate he did, glad again for the comfort his sunglasses would provide for the rest of the group. It was a little dark in the cover of the canopy, but he could still see well enough. Tarin didn’t know how he was going to hold the link with the spirit as it moved away, though, he was used to working in the same room…not a quarter mile away. So he concentrated, not too hard, he could feel the energy stretching across the distance. It was a little taxing, Tarin looked to Lee, “Hey hon…” he said, casting her an apologetic look, ”While she’s out that far…can you make sure you don’t touch me? It’s a long way and she’s pulling a fair bit of energy…probably wouldn’t be a problem…but I’ve never held a spirit this far away before.”

Sebastian wanted them to take cover if anything bad started to go down. Tarin nodded, but a deep frown marred his features at the idea. He was going to have to find a way to make himself a little more useful. The spirits could be great help, especially with as strong as they were, but with as unpredictable they had been to this point…Tarin just didn’t know if he could count on them to do the right thing. “We will.” For some reason, even with all the bullet holes in the Town Hall and the images he’d seen of the spirit’s deaths, the fact that there could be guns hadn’t really sunk in to Tarin’s mind. Until now. They were walking through the jungle in an area controlled by hostile paramilitary guerillas, suddenly Tarin was a little worried….what if’s started floating around in his head. Then Sebastian asked about their powers.

Tarin was slightly distracted as they walked, keeping the link open between himself and the spirit, so he didn’t know if the question was directed at himself or Lee, so he answered. “Well..when she’s got a lot of energy Lee packs one hell of a punch.” He said, listening to the sounds of the jungle with slightly new ears. “She’s strong and fast and all that. After everything that’s gone on today though, and how few people we’ve been around…I’m not sure that’s a possibility.” He looked to Lee with a questioning eyebrow raised, if she thought Seb needed to know more, she could tell him.

“As for me…I don’t even know how I do what I do.” Tarin said with a shrug, starting to sweat even more from the effort of holding the spirit for Sara. “It’s just always kind of been there, almost as long as I can remember. I see them…they see me. I can link up with them…you saw me make the woman visible back in the Town Hall.” Tarin looked at the young man with them, he seemed sort of like Slate, far wiser than his apparent years would suggest…and that horn. “What about you? You heal, and it sounds like you know you’re way around in a fight...what’s your sto-“

Tarin’s words were cut off, though by a rat-tat-tat sound that could only be a semi-automatic weapon discharging rounds. Instantly he stopped, then gasped slightly as the spirit reappeared in front of him. The proximity increased the link and Tarin had a feeling she’d just popped into visibility for the others in the group as well. “What’s going on?” he said, body tense as he looked around the surrounding trees.

”The puma woman has ran into trouble up ahead. She asks that you take cover while she deals with them. I’ll return to her now.”
Tarin sent her off then, holding the link and gritting his teeth slightly at the pull as she got further and further away from him. Sebastian asked for quiet then and a voice rang out from the jungle in the opposite direction Tarin had just watched the spirit go. Shit.

Sebastian asked and Tarin responded immediately, running to hide like a little girl behind the large stump the horned man had indicated and waiting for Lee to get there. This was frustrating; having someone else put themselves on the line to protect him while he hid. There was only one thing Tarin knew of to do, though and he looked at Lee, then took mental stock of his remaining energy reserves. It was going to be tight. The shouts were closer now, though, and Tarin had a distinct feeling there was more than one. Tarin didn’t like those odds for Sebastian, not at all. The decision was made.

“Lee. I’m going to help him. Keep an eye on me and slap me or something if I start to fade too much. I’ve still got to get these guys to the grave.” He whispered, then turned, resting his back against the stump and regarding the spirits who had followed him.

“Can I trust you.” He said, looking intensely at the man who’d thrown such fits in the building. The man nodded, “I’ll take my vengeance here…you’ve nothing more to fear from me fantasma orador.” The couple just nodded. “Right then.” Tarin said, then leaned his head back against the rough bark of the fallen tree, eyes closing.

The guerillas did emerge from the jungle, and fight did ensue. Tarin concentrated harder than he ever had, funneling energy into all four spirits at once, making them whole. He could hear someone screaming in terror in the background and he put his hands to his head, not even wanting to know what was going on. All he could think, though, was how he hoped it was one of the guerillas yelling and not one of their own. Tarin didn’t think he could handle another innocent life on his conscience.

Tarin seemed to be doing a good job with the whole leadership thing. At least Sara followed his suggestion and went on ahead to scout for them while him, her, and Sebastian followed along at a slower pace. It was good, Lee couldn't help but think with a slight smile as she glanced over at Tarin while they walked along. The leadership role, the whole doing something good with his powers, it seemed to really be helping Tarin.

Tarin, who was still wearing his sunglasses even though the jungle was much darker. She had taken her sunglasses off and stuck them in her breast pocket once they entered the almost darkness of the tree cover.

She was still looking over at Tarin when he turned to look at her. If he had said it any other way, Lee probably would have jumped five feet away from Tarin before he had a chance to explain why he was asking her not to touch him. But with the way he had asked, the way that even with the sunglasses on she could tell that he had a slightly apologetic look on his face, Lee knew that it didn't have anything thing to do with a merge. At least not yet.

So Lee just nodded. She hadn't wanted to take any energy from Tarin that she hadn't absolutely had to all day, and as a result hadn't touched him nearly as much as would be normal all day. Really, why would she be starting now?

As they continued along, Lee heard Sebastian questioning about what Tarin had meant by her being 'charged'. She supposed it was only a fair question for him to be asking in a situation like this.

But before she could answer the man behind her, Lee heard Tarin start to speak again. That was a very...basic explanation of what she was able to do. Normally, Lee would have let it go at that, but given where they were, given what they were doing, and what they were possibly up against, Lee figured that more details were needed.

Before she was able to say anything, Tarin was again asking about whether she actually had the energy she'd need to be useful, was looking at her again as he asked. She simply shook her head. "And who would I have gotten that kind of energy from?" Lee asked Tarin softly before looking over her shoulder at Sebastian.

"I siphon energy from people," Lee explained, her voice louder than it had been when she was taking to Tarin just a moment earlier, but still soft. "The more energy I have, the stronger and faster I can be, but we haven't exactly been around a lot of people for me to siphon from, my energy is rather low."

Not exactly the best situation, but it was the truth.

Then Lee heard gunshots and jumped. Though she'd had more guns pointed at her than she'd heard, Lee was still rather sure that the gun shots were a distance away. Still, she knew that bullets could travel a long way, so Lee quickly took cover with the others.

Mere moments later, Sebastian was saying he was going to go draw the guerrillas away and help Sara, telling them to stay hidden while he was gone. Before Lee could say anything, though, the man was gone, leaving just her and Tarin in the ferns.

Then Tarin was looking at her, saying he was going to help Sebastian. Lee just blinked at Tarin, then shook her head. What the hell was he talking about, helping Sebastian? Then Lee realized what Tarin was talking about as she saw him looking the other way and asking if he could trust whoever it was he was talking about.

"What?!" Lee exclaimed, fighting to keep her voice a whisper. "You can't be serious, Tarin. Not after what happened in the town hall!"

But Tarin was already leaning against the tree behind him, apparently concentrating and not paying any attention to her. And a couple moments later, Lee heard a scream coming from the direction that Sebastian had gone in. Jumping in a combination of fear and surprise, Lee's eyes darted between the green blocking her sight of where the fight was taking place and Tarin. This was so not good. Very not good.

All Lee could hope was that no one would come across them as they sat there, especially with Tarin not paying attention to where they actually were. So Lee focused on her siphoning as she sat there, not trying to draw any more energy in, hoping that she'd at least get warning of someone coming close to them.

(I hope my god moding of the ghost and with Sebby is alright. If it isn’t PM me and I’ll edit.)

Sara sat there in the dirt for a moment as she listened to the rest of the sounds of the jungle. Every sound, like the rustle of the leaves, or a snap of a twig may be all she had as a warning to another attack. Several pairs of foot steps brought her attention up to three men running through the terrain towards her. Weaving through the path like it were nothing, though Sara’s movements had been much more smooth. She caught glimpses of them through the trees and before they got a clear look at her, she shifted in the dirt. Bent over so that her arms could press against her stomach, and her body was so low to the ground most of her weight was on her other arm’s elbow. She was acting injured, to look weak. She even let her face flinch, and twist as if she were in pain. With her breaths made un even. Sara had a lot of experience knowing pain. It made faking the experience a walk in the park.

The three stopped, and something ghostly, with a horn caught her attention, behind them. Sebastian wasn’t supposed to be there. He was supposed to be with Lee and Tarin. Sara healed by herself and they didn’t. Her eyes flashed and reflected the light from the sun filtered through the trees as she glared at him with her jaw tightening in frustration. What was it worth having a plan if the members of the group didn’t follow it?

The center man raised his gun, leveling it at Sara just when there was a flash of a figure who had the gunman by the gun art. He had just appeared out of no where, or seemed to and Sara thought to maybe an hour ago, where the woman ghost had appeared above Tarin, in the pile. It was the only way she could explain it.

The ghost twisted the man’s arm and a twisted smile formed across the ghost’s face just before the man let out a horrific girlish howl of pain before the ghost stifled his breath by grabbing him by the throat and lifting him in the air. His fingers actually digging into the man’s neck as skin gave way and blood pulsed out. The other two men were stumbling back, dumb founded. One of the other two tried peppering the ghost with gun fire witch really wasn’t something that worked when your target was already dead.

Sara chose to act before the ghost finished his torture and kill of the first. With her arms and legs able to move faster than most human eyes could follow, she was on the other two men before they even realized she’d made it to her feet. The first man, firing at the ghost, received a swift frontal kick to the gut and as he was falling backwards with the wind knocked out of him, Sara was already spinning into the next kick that whipped her heal across his chin. The claws on her feet caught on his face and left a nice deep red trail across his jaw and cheek. Lucky for him, he was already out, or gone, so he didn’t have a chance to feel the fact that half his face was never going to be like the other.

The second man had only enough time to raise his assault riffle before one of Sara’s throwing knives stuck in his hand with enough force to knock the barrel of the gun off target. As the man tried to recover, Sara only had to take two running steps towards him. She scooped up a thick stick on her way then used it to smack him across the head, T-ball style. Then before the man’s head had bounced off of the ground, Sara was headed as fast as her legs could take her, straight for Sebastian.

She aimed to grab him by the sweat soaked collar of his shirt, haul him to his feet, and shove him, back first, towards the nearest tree. “I’m sure your intentions were good, but when there’s a plan made around here, Stick to it!” Sara’s lamp like eyes were wide. Partially from fear, partially from frustration. “I heal, Tarin and Lee don’t.” For her, they were priority.

The ghosts had taken the unicorn man by surprise. The situation he thought he had walked into, an injured Sara, three guerrillas, and a rifle ready to shoot her, changed as suddenly as the wind. A man appeared just as suddenly and solidly as the woman back in the town hall had done in front of the gunman and started attacking him. He was no woman scorned, but his fury was nearly as great. He lifted the man and nearly ripped his throat out as he choked him. Mere seconds later, three other spirits including the woman from the town center and they joined in with their comrade in death, attacking the gunman. Their faces were terrible to behold as they tore at the guerrilla. They still were so human, but their countenances were twisted into hideous expressions of hatred as they took out their revenge, dragging the body away into the foliage and out of sight.

In a second turn of events, Sara jumped up and quickly, though slightly less lethally, dispatched the other two men. The unicorn shifter didn't even get a chance to help. Sebastian had once gone up against Hunter. He'd been a hair slower than the vampire, giving him a definite disadvantage in their match. Sara could have run circles around the blood sucking immortal. Almost before Sebastian had time to realize that she didn't need his aid with the three gunmen after all, his back was up against a tree, and his own teammate was growling in his face.

That was uncalled for.

The unicorn met her wide eyes with a calm azure gaze, reading fear and frustration in the cat like eyes that were still human enough to show her emotions. “The tree that cannot bend with the wind breaks, Miss Sara. Many battles have been lost because generals cannot adapt their plan.”

As for him, he could adapt to that tree bark digging into his back. He could even get quite comfortable standing there, if there wasn't still work to be done. They had a mission to complete and all their roles were important. Certainly Tarin was the only one who could speak with and manipulate the spirits, but his powers wouldn't be very valuable if he were reduced to a spirit himself.

“It is my job to make sure no one dies on this little adventure. The best way to heal someone is to prevent them from getting injured in the first place. That includes healers. Just because you are a healer doesn't mean you are invincible. You might survive one bullet, or a hundred. The hundred and first might just find a weak spot you didn't even know you had. I don't suppose you've ever heard of Achilles; he thought he could survive any hit, too.”

He waited a moment to give her a chance to respond before he attempted to continue reasoning with her. She just needed to calm down a bit, then they could get back to being comrades in arms, or rather tails, once again.

“Now, if you let me go, I can tie up those two,” Sebastian indicated the prone gunmen with a tilt of his chin, “and we can get back Tarin and Lee before we get any other unwelcome company. Lee was saying something about an ability to absorb the physical energy of a person, and we have two right here that seem to have more energy than they really need.”

Once the hand that held his shirt let it go again, he planned to sacrifice the sweaty scrap for the purpose of restraining and gagging the two unconscious Columbian mercenaries so they wouldn't have a chance to cause any more trouble, just in case they woke up again.

Screams, he could hear the screams. Tarin didn’t feel so bad this time, though. It was kind of like the camps, Tarin could remember it vividly; the guard smacking him in the head with the gun, the puddle of blood, the spirits lifting him into the air and tearing him literally limb from limb. They were dangerous and Tarin was lucky they’d focused their hatred on the intended subject rather than one of his comrades in arms.

Tarin could feel the spirits through the mental link he had with them, and their power pulsed through him almost like he’d imagine it would feel to grab a live wire. It pulsed and it flowed and Tarin held on, letting them take from him as they needed. Images flittered back and forth across the bonds and Tarin thought that a couple of times he saw the bloody scene that was unfolding in the jungle.

His hands were still clasped on either side of his head and Tarin had almost completely forgotten that Lee was there. Then, it stopped. It all stopped. The jungle was silent. Tarin could still feel the spirits, their blood lust was sated, but not completely. They wanted the others. The others who remained alive. Nuh uh.

Tarin concentrated, bringing the whole scene into clear focus in his mind’s eye, slowly pulling back from the spirits. It was hard, it was really hard because they wanted more, they wanted to sate the bloody hatred. There’d been enough though, and Tarin pulled back, muttering to himself as he concentrated. Then, they were done. Tarin held the link, but it was barely a whisper of what it had been a few moments before. The medium was aware of the presence of the undead, but their intentions were muted, and it was like he was looking through dirty glass. Slowly, Tarin opened his eyes.

Taking a few deep breaths, Tarin turned his head towards Lee and smiled, “I did it.” He said, feeling exceedingly proud of himself, but then the smile faded slightly, “They weren’t nice, not at all. I think they took him off the trail though. Let’s go find Sebastian and Sarah, there’s no more fighting.”

That said, Tarin rose and took a cursory look around the clearing before making his way down the jungle path and towards where he could feel the spirits. The woman appeared and Tarin nodded at her, noticing that her shimmering, semi-translucent visage was clean despite the bloody activities of a few moments before.

”Your friends are already there. We’ve found the place. Now we just have to find our bodies.” she said, and Tarin simply nodded. What he’d seen had been too much, any human connection he’d felt with the woman was gone. He simply wanted to get them off his hands and somewhere they could find the peace of mind to not need to do what they’d just done.

Tarin just continued to sit there holding his head, and as each second passed, Lee grew more and more worried. She'd never actually seen Tarin try and control spirits like this before, but she remembered him mentioning that it didn't always work out.

And then the screaming really started.

As it continued, Lee's eyes were growing larger, but all she could see in the direction the screaming was coming from was greenery. Finally, Lee's wide eyes turned to Tarin, only to see him still sitting there, still with his hands on either side of his head.

He was looking like he was concentrating even harder as the screaming died off, and Lee wasn't sure whether she had ever seen such a look of concentration on her husband's face before.

Finally, though, Tarin's hands dropped and he opened his eyes to look at her. And he looked proud, even if the smile was sliding off his face almost immediately.

"What did you do?" Lee asked softly, but Tarin was already getting up, moving out of their little hiding spot, talking about going to go find Sara and Sebastian.

So Lee got up, following Tarin, looking around the jungle as they went much more carefully than he had appeared to. And saw Tarin nodding occasionally as he walked. Did that mean the spirits were back and talking to him?

Quickening her pace slightly, Lee came up beside Tarin as they continued along. He had said he thought the spirits had taken 'him' off the path... "Do I want to ask what happened?" Lee asked quietly, glancing over at Tarin.

Before she had gotten an answer, though, they passed another tree and Lee saw Sara, and a shirtless Sebastian up ahead. That was...odd to say the least. Why the hell was he shirtless?

"Are you two alright?" Lee asked once they had gotten closer. She didn't really want to be yelling after they'd already had to deal with some soldiers out here.