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"It's fine. You don't have any ill intent towards me. It doesn't bother me as much as you think now."
Xander pulled his scarf down.
"Well, if you do have powers like we believe, it may be good to try training them. You never know when it could come in handy. Besides, it builds confidence and prevents you from using any of that stuff on accident."
"I thought I had a rough past," Ellie gasped covering her mouth feeling bad about what she said. "Um..how do I train my powers," Ellie asks him trying to cover up what she said.
Xander caught her words anyway.
"Yeah, I probably should've warned you that I'm a criminal. Not a violent one, but… still…"
He tapped his foot.
"Do you want to practice digging through my mind? You've already dug up some pretty personal stuff it seems. Um… it can't hurt to go further, especially if it means it'll help you. I don't know much about training mind powers, though."
"You would let me do that," Ellie asked shocked.
"If you're comfortable, maybe. But I reserve the right to ask you to stop if you strike a sore spot in my memories," Xander agreed, "I don't know. I've got nothing better to do with my life. Might as well help someone else out."
"Ok, could I if you think it's ok, I would stop if you tell me to, ok," Ellie says starting to hold her arm again.
"Yeah," Xander murmured, "Let's uh… let's sit down somewhere, in case stuff gets intense. It's fun magic stuff, and one of us could end up passing out if we're not careful. I can control shadows, and with that at least, I know things can get really nasty. Fainting spells… oh, and one time I messed up and was blind for almost three days."
"Ok, I'm ready to let us begin," Ellie said walking to a close tree and sat down. "What's the worst thing that has ever happen to you from overusing your powers," She asked him sitting against the tree.
"Hm… I've blacked out for really long periods of time, and then there was the blindness. How bad it is really varies between magic types. But you can usually feel yourself start to fade before anything bad happens, so don't worry about that. Just take a break if things start to feel bad," Xander explained, "Those things only happened in really dire situations where I had to push myself past threshold in order to survive."
"Ok, tell me when you're ready," Ellie said re-adjusting her position.
Xander sat down cross-legged next to Ellie.
"Ready as I think I'll ever be," he said.
"Ok, let's do this," Ellie said starting to scan Xander's memories.
"You are a SUPER good artist way better than me." Ellie said looking at Xander.
The first memory was a very recent one. A young man, around the age of 20 appeared first, wearing a gray coat and a crimson undershirt. He was crouched on the ground and stood up to his full height, about 5'4. He turned to Xander. His glasses were broken on the left side, and tears streaked his face. He had been crouched in front of someone- someone who now lay motionless. Xander started running towards him to see who it was. It was none other than Xander's friend and this man's younger sister.
Xander twitched a bit in discomfort. It still hurt some, but he wasn't uncomfortable enough to stop. Two tears rolled down Xander's cheek.
"You… did you see that?"
He couldn't hear the compliment at first, so shocked by the vivid flashback.
Ellie looked at Xander. "hey what was that and are you ok." Ellie said putting her hand on his foot.
"A little shaken, is all…" Xander whispered, placing a hand on his forehead, "So… you did? That was my friend… She… she was killed for poking her nose around in business where she didn't belong, but I don't know why she of all people had to die… The guy… He's also a friend of mine, and her older brother as well as the fiance of one of my older sisters. He doesn't cry very often, but…"
Xander fell quiet.
"Can you control the tone of the memories you pick up? Or do you see things sitting on the surface? C-can you tell yet?"
"the memories just show up right now," Ellie said looking at him in the eyes and started to scan him again.
Xander tried his best to block out negative thoughts and memories, and it worked.
He stood behind his older twin sisters. The smaller of the two knocked on the door, and after several seconds, a woman in her 50s cracked open the door, looked at the two women, then her gaze fell on Xander and she started sobbing. Xander's body went rigid. His sisters parted to let the woman past, and she rushed to him and held him tightly. He wrapped his arms back around her and started to sob, but he was smiling at the same time.
"y….your…..m…mom I think," Ellie said stuttering and holding her arm that started twitching again.
Xander smiled. "Yeah, my first time meeting her… I met my sisters entirely by chance, too. It's just crazy to think after all I went through, something kind of went right."
He opened his eyes and looked to Ellie.
"Are you doing alright over there?"
"Y…Ya I'm fine," Ellie told him closing her eyes again.
Ellie starts focusing really hard on scanning him and the next memory slowly starts showing up.
The memory was of younger Xander holding an older man's hand. The man looked like Xander but older. Young Xander's face was tear soaked. Ellie opened her eyes. "W…What was t….that." Ellie asked Xander as her arm started twitching even more intensely and with a stutter growing.
Xander sifted through his mind again, but he wasn't in very good control. A surge of pain passed over his arm, just preceded by the loud crack of a whip. A scream of, "Xander, no!" echoed from behind him.
A redheaded girl, about his age, looked up towards him where she had been knocked over on the ground. In the moment's distraction, the whip came down on him again, this time striking him over the eye. The eye itself wasn't injured, but as he continued to put up a fight, it had swollen almost shut. By the end, the girl was able to get up and help him finish the fight, but in the process, he had been in a rough situation with one of the guards and ended up with broken ribs. It was not worth looking cool in front of a friend, but at least he had maybe saved her. The pain was enough to make him faint.
Xander felt the pain even though he was just recalling a memory, and he briefly fainted, slumping over onto the tree roots. He was awake again within the minute, but it was still scary.
Ellie didn't notice her energy draining. Her nose started bleeding and she passed out. Her body slumped against the tree. Blood rolled down her lips. Her hair was falling over her face.
Xander groggily tried to sit up. He clutched at his chest where it had hurt before, then glanced over to where Ellie was. He gasped when he realized what had happened and crawled over to her, trying to shake her awake. At first he wondered if she had passed out from his pain, but the blood… she had almost definitely pushed herself too hard.
She didn't wake up when Xander shook her. She groaned after he let go of her.
She’s probably okay… definitely alive…
Xander kept trying to wake her back up, making sure to keep an eye on his surroundings to make sure no one else was nearby.
“Hey, Ellie,” he said, “Can you hear me?”
(can I join?)
(Sure make a character)