Nightmares of the Past, <Daisuke>

[Aren Summers]

A tall brunette woman walked through the streets of sydney her arm entwined with that of her companion, her husband. The night sky was clear the moon was ful and the stars were bright. It was the epitome of a romantic skyline as they cut throgh a park and into a back street on there way home.

The woman is suddenly thrown to the floor by her husband, shielding her body with his own as gunshots were fired, when she hit the floor he lay next to her dead. more shots were fired over her head. It was the muggle police and some criminals. She didn't know which side the shot that felled her husband came from.

Suddenly arms pulled her up holding her in front of them as a meat shield a gun aimed at her temple. He was shouting something but words made no sense to her. Probably some threat to kill her unless terms were met. You first, a spike of telepathic energy rupturing his brain from within as he fell to the ground. His companions reacted shooting in the direction of the police and her, a bullet heading straight towards her at eye level.

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"NOOOOO!"

Just as the bullet hit Aren awoke with a cry. He saw it again, the images he'd seen through his psychic connection with his mother. The images that had plagued his dreams ever since. He had managed through sheer will and probably some psychic ability keep them supressed for a while. They had returned though and more frequent then ever. He needed to talk to somebody. There was only one person he could talk to, the only one who knew that these dreams exist.

Utilising a psychic probe he searched for that familiar presence, detecting it in the grounds. What was he doing in the grounds this time of night? Oh Saiki if you're not careful people are going to start thinking your up to something. Dressing quickly he exited the common room through the portrait and headed up to the grounds.

He looked this time with his eyes until he found who he was looking for. He walked slowly up to him not waving, even his facial expression was sombre. He couldn't make himself put up any front, not with Daisuke, he merely spoke honestly.

"It happened again."

[Daisuke Himura]

Daisuke was not a windmaster, but the wind responded to him just the same. A master, to a degree, of all five elements, the onmyouji could command and if the element was feeling generous, it might obey. He had so little time to practice these skills during the week, and on the weekends the students crawled all over the campus. He was only twenty-four, and despite being a master after his own kind, he required fine tuning and careful work to keep up to top skill. The wind pulled at his long sleeved t-shirt. He wore jeans as well, and a pair of sturdy black shoes. Muggle-dressed, with his long hair tied back from his face.

He focused only on himself, and then slowly spread his attentiveness outward. The life of the forest was one thing, slowly he met, touched, and dismissed it. He spread further, finding first familiar minds. He could delve into their consciousness, but without good reason it was unethical to do so. He had dove into the minds of coma victims, mostly, and once to show Aren the way home when he'd become lost in his own mind. It was a skill that many refused to use even upon learning it: it was dangerous to delve into a chaotic mind, and very easy to lose oneself. Saiki was particularly good at it, and still he risked his life each time.

As his mind stretched further and further, he finally realized that one of those familiar minds was moving. Closer, closer, coming to him. He felt his eyes blink as his consciousness flooded back into his body with an almost audible snap. He blinked a few times and realized that Aren was closer than he'd thought: the younger man was standing just in front of him.

"It happened again."

He didn't have to say what. Saiki knew. And his instincts were to hug this man who was like a younger brother, but there was something in Aren that kept Saiki from it. Instead he spoke in reply.

"I'm sorry." What do you say to a man who experienced the death of his parents so closely? He had never been sure. The dreams had been gone for a time, a long time. Now they were back. "Do you want to talk about it?"

[Aren Summers]

All of the fear, anger and frustration within Aren seemed to explode in a single moment. A verbal outburst of emotion that he couldn't have contained even if he wanted to.

"What's the point! What good will talking do? NO matter what
I do the dreams come back. I can't keep putting psionic blocks around them. I'm going to do some kind of damage. How am i supposed to just move past the fact that I telepathically witnessed my parents death? This is going to follow me for the rest of my life."

Aren looked down and noticed the blue blazing dagger on his hand. A physical manifestation of his psychic energy. In his moment of duress his mind must have summoned it. Dissipating the energy he looked up at Daisuke.

"I'm sorry Saiki i didn't mean to blow up at you. I just really thought they were gone for good. Why now? I have winning the Quidditch Cup and NEWT's to worry about."

Ok sure, so that last bit would have sounded a little immature. He did though NEWT's were nothing to laugh about. They got there name for a reason afterall. He couldn't keep this up with his mother's memory haunting him.

"Saiki, I need your help. The help of an onmyouji."

[Daisuke Himura]

Daisuke listened without judging. Aren was still so young, and he'd been through too much. It made the professor feel better when Aren had fits like the one that passed almost too quickly. He always tried to be too mature and to hold all of his feelings inside. It worked, sometimes, but too often it rode the young man and ate at him. Daisuke, of everyone, knew what emotions could do when they hadn't been faced and properly dealt with. But he let Aren continue talking. The inevitable apology came and Saiki inclined his head. He knew the young man meant nothing by it.

Then the request came. Aren knew more about the onmyouji than most outsiders ever could. He had been raised in the thick of them, and while he had no talent for it himself, he knew of the workings. Saiki knew, without asking, what it was that Aren wanted him to do. It was dangerous enough for a fully trained onmyouji with perfect control of his emotions to enter into a person's consciousness, even if that consciousness was not in turmoil. He could and had even entered into hearts in chaos, though that was particularly more dangerous and many an onmyouji had simply been lost that way. Their soul never returned to their bodies, and that body would survive for a time before it simply stopped functioning.

"You ask the impossible." Which was a lie. Aren knew it to be possible, and Saiki as well knew it. But to ask him to take him deep into the young man's own consciouness was something he had no right to ask. The danger to an onmyouji was balanced by their training to keep themselves whole in the midst of the storm. Aren had no such training. Yes, the boy was quite gifted, and he had received training by the same master who had trained Daisuke, but he did not have this skill. It was too dangerous. Saiki wouldn't risk Aren's life.

[Aren Summers]

"Don't do that Himura I'm not a child."

Aren's normally warm eyes, filled with life and friendship had turned cold. They displayed no emotion, had an almost glazed quality as they came to rest on Daisuke's.

"Don't coddle me or try to lie to me for my own protection or whatever reason your trying to do this. I know better then probably anyone here what you are capable of. I know the risks and I know you can handle them. As for me, if I don't do this I will never move past this. It will haunt me for the rest of my adult life. I can't keep this up. I need to deal with this. You know this is the only way. If something happens in there it is my fault not yours."

He took a moment to attempt to compose himself, a sharp breath inward as he had to control his body from shaking from the sheer brunt of emotion he was feeling right now. It was an odd occurrence for his emotions not to be in check.

"I'm a psychic, I know what a mind is capable of. I know of the dangers, I'm asking for your help. If you wont help me i'll fnd another way. Amplify my psychic powers, do something to do this. I came to you as a brother because I thought you'd help. I'm going to do this though with or without you."

How childish did Aren sound right now? Was he no different to a toddler having a tantrum. No Daisuke had looked him in the eye and lied to him. He had every right to be angry. He didn't need anyone to protect him, what he needed was support. If he couldn't get that he would find some other way. for better or worse these dreams would stop for good.

[Daisuke Himura]

"You ask what has been forbidden me." he said simply. It hurt to hear the anger and formality directed at him. Saiki would never relish hurting others, and focused on the parts of his duty that aided those that he could help move on. Spirits bound to this plane, and other smaller supernatural things. He never wanted to use his powers used to kill, to harm. This would be harmful, but would also heal. He was torn in two directions. "You would have me break traditions that have guided my clan for seventeen generations before me. Do not ask so lightly." he hated sounding curt, but Aren had so rarely seen this side of him, and the boy may not have realized it was there.

How dare the boy ask. It was not within his rights to demand anything from the onmyouji. His pleas may have validity to them, but he was also acting the part of a spoiled child, and Saiki would not bend to him over this. Part of him may consider helping him, simply because Aren was backing him into a corner. Well Saiki was not the sort to allow himself to be backed, not over concerns for safety and the like. No.

"You intend to do it alone? You could not. Your gifts don't work in that way, Summers-san." he replied cooly. "And I will not be threatened into doing as you wish me to do. You might have convinced me if you'd remained mature about this, instead of throwing threats around." he snapped. He hated sounding so cruel. "As for now, you are out on the grounds after hours, and I think you should return to your dormitory before I have to dock points from my own house." he replied quite simply.

[Aren Summers]

Aren could not remember the last time he had been this angry at Daisuke. He didn't think such a time existed. He knew a lot of people if he had mentioned this to would be critical and call him reckless. He hadn't expected it from Daisuke though. He had asked his brother for help, the last time he would do that.

"I will find a way to do this Daisuke."

He turned away and walked towards the castle. This was his choice to make no one elses. If it was a mistake it was his to make but he could not go on this way. How many people witnessed there mother's death through her own eyes? People had said they knew what he must be going through. Somehow he doubted it.

Aren waited until he was far enough inside the castle the Daisuke would have no idea of what he was doing. Unfourtunately Aren had no intention of going to bed. Encompassing the area around him with low level psychic suggestion that would make anyone passing him look like part of the castle he made his way towards the library.

To the restricted section, there was no time like the present afterall to start planning something like this. He would get as much research done as possible. There had to be something to help him. He would find it, he didn't need Daisuke or anyone elses help.

[Daisuke Himura]

Daisuke watched Aren storm off and let out a sigh. Alright, so that wasn't his best example of how to deal with a bad situation. He knew that, and tomorrow he'd find the younger man and apologize. It hadn't exactly been Aren's fault. He knew nothing of the balances that Saiki had to live by to be what he was. Asking him to do something that reckless and dangerous hadn't been right, but in the boy's defense, he really hadn't known how much of a dangerous suggestion it was and how much it was truly asking of him. Sighing again, and making sure he would apologize later, Saiki gave up.

He wasn't going to get anything more done tonight, and he needed to sleep himself. Classes tomorrow and all that. So, bleary eyed and feeling more than a little bad, he treked back up to the castle and up the endless stairs to the staff apartments, where he entered and quickly sought his own bed. It was only the next morning that he realized that perhaps he should have made a mental sweep to check on Aren. The boy was seventeen and reckless, and while Saiki had never had that phase, he could see it in his students every day. He should have known better.