Revelations

The next morning when Jennifer and Allyson got up for the morning, both you and Annabeth were already at the table, both of you nursing a mug of coffee. A sixth one for you, fourth for Annabeth. You were seriously going to owe Allyson some more coffee. You, like her, drank dark roast coffee while Jennifer, like Annabeth, opted for light roast. You're going to let Annabeth replace Jen's.

"James, Beth..." What's going on?" Jennifer asked with great concern. Neither of you looked like you'd gotten a wink of sleep the previous evening and both of you were looking very grim. With everything that was going on, you and Annabeth had decided, at the very least, to let Jennifer, Allyson and Kathy in on everything. Whether or not the two of you would tell Britney was another matter all together, but you already told Annabeth that you'd defer to her judgment there.

"I messaged Kathy already and she will be on her way soon. I'd prefer to wait until she got here," you reply.

Allyson sighed. "What the hell happened this time?"

"It's a bit of a story," you reply, trying to divert attention from Annabeth, who winced slightly when Allie asked her question. "One I'd... We'd... Like to tell as little as possible."

Jennifer takes a deep breath while looking up at the sky. She seems to you to be counting. "I'm really trying not to freak out here, James."

You close your eyes, stretching out your senses, successfully blocking out the other tennents from the apartment- even Allie and Jen, though you make note of their apprehensive emotional state. You feel the presence you were looking for, and her nervousness. "You're not the only one, Sis. Kathy is on her way up, so you won't have to wait much longer."

"How much...?" Jennifer starts to ask as you gesture and the door opens, startling everyone, including Kathy, who'd been about to knock. Telekinetically grabbing her waist, you pull her into the apartment, shutting the door behind her.

"W-What's going on?" Kathy asked nervously.

"At a guess, metahuman stuff and Annabeth is involved somehow," Allyson accurately guessed.

"I-I see..." Kathy replied. Since you were looking right at her, you actually caught the look of hurt that crossed her face. Since you were also monitoring everyone's emotional states, you also felt the stab of jealousy that accompanied it.

"I don't think you do," Annabeth responded in a careful tone.

"You're a meta, like James," Allyson stated, much to Jennifer and Kathy's shock. Annabeth, too numb to be amazed by her deduction, simply nodded in confirmation. "How long have you had your powers?"

"Since... Since I was six..." Annabeth informed them. "I'm a Diviner- a psychic metahuman who possesses the power of second sight. I'm capable of seeing possibilities."

"Possibilities?" Jennifer asked as she sat down next to you.

You send a wave of comforting thoughts towards Annabeth through your link.

"Possibilities... Possible futures..." Annabeth elaborated. "My very first vision when I was six, was of your brother, not long after he got his powers. His reaction to that dream he had that first night here, that was him saving me from doing something stupid."

"So... You're literally the girl of his dreams," Kathy weakly joked.

That released some of the tension of the room, but everything was still uneasy between everyone.

Annabeth shrugged indifferently. "Technically."

"The reason why we had the shared dream that night, was due to a psychic bond the two of us share," you explain. "One that was forged the night Annabeth got her powers and was completed when I saved her on the Astral Plane."

"So what does that mean for you guys?" Kathy asked.

You shrug. "I have no idea. According to another seer Annabeth knows, this is the second, maybe third, time such a bond has ever existed and the first time it's simply just happened." You turn thoughtful for a moment, before addressing Annabeth. "You said that ever since that night, your powers have been growing, evolving."

"Yeah," Annabeth carefully agreed.

"What if they're not. What if you've always been this way and that night unlocked your potential, like it did for me," you speculate. "You said before that you got several visions before you were ready, whose context you didn't understand until years later."

Annabeth blushed at this, much to the surprise of the non-metahumans in the room.

"I can't be sure, but I think it's possible your powers sensed what would be happening now and sought to jumpstart our bond early," you continue. "However, as a way of protecting yourself, since you weren't mature to handle the full extent of your visions, you only got the abridged notes."

"What's going on now?" Allyson asked just moments before your sister and her cousin.

You and Annabeth have a brief nonverbal conversation, which makes Jennifer raise her eyebrows in shock and Kathy frown. Until that point in time, the only people you'd been able to do that with was the two of them before you got your powers. Given the tells, they are each seeing, both of them know on an instinctive level that the conversation you're having with Annabeth is sans psychic powers.

"All diviners are psychically linked together, much like James and I are," Annabeth responded. "Because of that bond, we're typically more loyal to each other than we are to anyone else. Because of this bond, all metas with a second sight ability, no matter how powerful it is, are all part of a group called the Diviner's Conclave- who ensures the safety of all seers, everywhere. We're governed by a ruling body known as the Oracle's Council, they set the few rules we have that we're all to live by."

"Typically?" Allyson asks.

"Our bond is an exception," you explain. "Her bond to me is stronger and supercedes her bond to them."

"Which I'm guessing is the important part," Allyson speculates, which you and Annabeth confirm with a nod. "What are the effects of the bond?"

"I'm immune to second sight, for one. Another side effect is the fact that both of us can travel to parts of the Astral Plane we otherwise couldn't due to me being a telepath and her being a diviner," you explain. "Something I'm not to keen on doing every again if we don't need to."

"Because of what almost happened to Beth?" Jennifer asked.

"In part. Neither one of us have really been able to fully piece together everything that happened that night, but there's also what happened last night," you inform them.

"We had a shared vision and in that vision we encountered something we're calling The Corruption," Annabeth speaks up before anyone else can. "As far as either one of us can tell, it can affect all metahumans and maybe even regular humans. But right now, The Diviner's Conclave is in the most immediate danger. Our bond makes us highly resistant, if not completely immune, to The Corruption under normal circumstances."

Allyson sighed. "Every word that comes out of your mouths just leads to more questions. Normal circumstances?"

"Last night on the Astral Plane, as beings of pure psychic energy, we almost fell to the influence of The Corruption," you tell them. It was more complicated than that- individually, the both of you would be much harder to corrupt. But as you were together, The Corruption was more easily able to take root in your minds. "On the Physical Plane, we should be less susceptible, barring certain circumstances- especially since we know what to look for."

"Should be?" Allyson asked challengingly.

"Barring certain circumstances," you reinterate. "The reason we're bringing this up is because we believe there is a Diviner who is either already corrupted or in the process of being corrupted. Given their fairly weak psychic bond to each other, all Diviners who are not Annabeth are at risk of being corrupted second hand."

"So how do you stop The Corruption?" Jennifer asked with concern.

"Short of bonding with every uncorrupted diviner we can find, I have no idea," you reply.

"We hope to get some idea on how to do that tomorrow when we meet with The Prophetess. She's the most powerful and expirienced of all of us," Annabeth informs them. "If anyone has anything even remotely resembling a solution, she will."

"And if she doesn't?" Allyson asks pessimistically.

"Then I kill a lot of people," you state grimly. "From what I gather, the purpose of the Diviner's Conclave is to keep diviners from being controlled by any one group or person and to ensure that they are all working of their own free will, no matter who they choose to work for. My immunity to second sight means that I'm the only person capable of completely destroying the Diviner's Conclave- something that may come to pass if we can't figure out how to save them."

"How long have you guys known about this?" Kathy asked.

"Since last night," you tell her. "The Prophetess herself saved us from fallng victim to The Corruption and she was the one who informed us of what my potential purpose was."

"Is it possibly she's already corrupted and playing you?" Allyson asked, playing devil's advocate.

Annabeth started to get defensive, but you are quick to calm her down by placing your hand on hers. "No. Not yet at least. Apparently, since I moved here, there has been some sort of fog clouding the sight of anyone not Annabeth with an ability to see the future. We literally came out of nowhere. Given her famiarity with our bond, I suspect that she's far too psychically sensitive to be taken by The Corruption easily."

"Do you think..." Annabeth questions.

"I would be more surprised if she wasn't the first bonded diviner," you agree. "That being said, whoever is behind The Corruption likely has a similar, bastardized bond, and likely my immunity to second sight as well."

That startled Annabeth. "Wh-what?"

"It's just a guess, but an educated one," you elaborate. "Judging by the vision, whoever it is behind The Corruption has seemingly been at it a while. Some of the metas we saw looked like they'd been under it's influence for a while, while others didn't look like they'd been infected at all. The most telling was the presence of Beastman, looking completely health and in control of his actions- he was even directing other groups of metahumans. I can only speculate that the reason no diviner can currently see the future is because they have no future because their future is still being decided. Either they fall to The Corruption and are ensalved, the fall and are destroyed, or somehow we manage to save them."

"So you think that whatever, whoever, is behind The Corruption is a member of the Knights of Walpurgis?" Annabeth queried.

"More like their leader," you state. "Even if they haven't always been. It's the only solid lead we have. Do you know of anyone working with them?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Very few of us are open about who we work with- if we're working with anybody. Even I only told them about my involvement with you because of your interactions with the Justice ****. This... This is bad..."

"Who bad?" Jennifer asked.

"One person who was immune to our powers with the potential to destroy us already had the Conclave panicking. But two people being immune, one who's potentially working to enslave us... I can't imagine what some of us might do or try to do," Annabeth said fearfully.

"Chances are that whoever the corruptor is, they are either unaware of their bond with the diviner they are corrupting or at least unaware of what exactly the bond is capable of," you try to reassure her. "If it wasn't for our bond, we wouldn't have any idea that you and the other diviners were connected to each other. A fact most you seem to be completely unaware of. The corrupting of The Diviner's Conclave may be an unintended and unexpected boon for them."

"That might actually be scarier," Annabeth replies.

"Maybe, if I'm right, our impending unknown deadline may have been extended, at least a little bit," you say. "Whoever is behind The Corruption, they're currently working in secret, only striking at targets of opportunity, likely at the behest of their enslaved seer."

Thinking over the situation and ways you can deal with it, one sticking point comes to mind. For all your power, you were going to be tied up fighting The Corruption and whoever was behind it. That meant you were going to be **** to the veritable army of metas fighting under the banner of the corruptor, both willing and loyal soliders and their brainwashed servants. There was no way Annabeth, Jennifer and Kathy would be able to hold them off. That meant you were going to need help- powerful help. And there was only one person whose powers were close enough to yours that you could reliably trust and rely on to protect them, even if you hated his guts.

"Fuck!" you say, much to everyone else's surprise. Looking to Annabeth, the **** to say what you were about to say was showing very obviously in your body language. "You wouldn't happen to have the Davenport chick's number would you?"

"Who's she?" Kathy asked.

"A meta like me, only her second sight ability is much weaker. She's also the only way we know of to contact another meta we know," Annabeth answered. "Are you sure?"

"I don't have a choice. He's the only meta I know of that I can account for his whereabouts over the last couple months. He's high profile enough that corrupting him would be a dangerous move and given his power, I'd rather have him on our side rather than theirs," you admit. "If we're going to succeed in fighting this, we're going to need Chris Grayson, Singularity, protecting you guys and watching my back."

"Does this mean we're going to be joining the Justice **** after all?" Annabeth asked.

"We?" Kathy inquired.

"We're a package deal. Where he goes, I go," Annabeth says to your sister's cousin. However, another message was being sent between them as well. While not completely oblivious to what was going on, you are unsure what is being communicated between them. You reach out with your bond and brush Annabeth's mind in askance, only to be rebuffed. Kath, however, seemed to get the message loud and clear.

Shaking it off, you answer Annabeth's question. "Not a chance. We're still freelance. This is our gig, not theirs; we just need a bit of extra muscle. Besides, there were a couple of them in the vision as well, so we can't say for sure who among them may have already been compromised. But what we do know that for sure is that for whatever reason, Christopher wasn't among the corrupted in the vision. Whether he was killed or fighting elsewhere by that point, I don't know, but he is our safest option."