With a Dream, About a Girl...

You snap awake, finding yourself in some sort of strange void. Where ever you are, it's dark and foreboding, yet you find yourself at home.

"Hello!?" you call out. "HEY!?!?!?"

No response is forthcoming, nor is there an echo in this seemingly endless void. You're only left with a single option and it's not one you like. Unfortunately, **** times call for **** measures.

You close your eyes and lessen the barriers you built to protect yourself and others from your wild and nearly uncontrollable telepathy- reaching out into the void, praying to God that you didn't just make a horrible mistake.

"Hi!" exclaims a cheerful voice that startles you, causing you to snap your eyes open.

The first thing you see in front of you is a vaguely familiar woman in front you. The second thing you notice, is that she is well built and naked.

You shut your eyes again and blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. "You're naked!"

Her only response is to giggle and you feel like a complete idiot. Taking a moment to collect yourself, you take a deep breath and slowly open your eyes. Much to your own astonishment, she's dressed. Admittedly, she isn't dressed in much, but it's still more clothes than what she had on before, even if all that she's wearing is basically a skimpy top and bikini briefs. A cape drapes from her shoulders and flares widely at the bottom with the corners connecting to metal wristbands- much like Storm of the X-Men comics. Her red hair looks wild and untamed and her emerald green eyes are predatory and mischievous.

She has a pleased smirk on her face, as she bounces on her toes, making her barely covered breasts bounce. She's obviously teasing you, and is well aware of your reaction to her.

You take another deep breath.

"Who are you?"

Disappointment flickers on her face for a brief moment before her smile returns, though it is ****. "You really don't now who I am?"

"Should I?" you ask.

"We've met- in person even," she answers.

Though you're still suspicious, her earnestness puts you at ease. "Have we now..."

"Yes," she replies without hesitation. "You were everything I'd dreamed you'd be."

"Dreamed?" you inquire, suddenly very wary of this girl and the 'at ease' feeling that she brings to your turmoiled existence.

"I'm like you," she tells you. "I have a special ability as well. I see the future- many futures, in fact. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this moment!"

You're taken aback by this statement. "So... What? You're saying I've got some sort of big destiny ahead of me?"

"I don't know, actually," she replied in a rueful tone. "Your future, as it's always been, is beyond my sight."

"And yet you knew you'd meet me here, in this place," you point out.

"Just because your future is blocked from my sight doesn't mean others are," she defended. "I don't know if it's because you have no destiny or your destiny is yours to command, I just know it's beyond my ability to see." Despite how happy she is to see you, you can easily tell that this was something about you that bothered her greatly.

"Is it because of what I am- what we are?" you ask reasonably.

She shakes her head. "No. I've seen the futures of other metas like us, both good and evil. It's only you whose future I can't see."

You frown. "Then how'd you know I'd be here?"

"Because I've always known," she replied. "My very first vision of the future was of this time, in this moment, here with you." She closes her eyes briefly and when they open again, they've taken on a slight greenish blow. "Even now, looking at each and every single one of my futures, no matter how they branch off, each and every single one of them only have one commonality."

"Me," you state.

"You," She confirms. "I've dreamed so much of this moment- what I'd say, how I'd react... And just as I was in my dreams, I don't have the slightest clue on what to say to you."

"What am I to you, in the future?" you ask.

"I'm whatever you need. In some futures I'm a blushing bride, others a stalwart friend, a loving mistress, a loyal servant, a nuturing mother, or even a cherished pet. My role in relation to you changes, but I am always by your side. Sometimes standing shoulder to shoulder, other times kneeling at your feet, awaiting your every command," she answers with complete honesty. The lack of her concern about her alleged roles in your shared futures ironically concerns you a bit.

"And that doesn't seem weird to you?" you ask with a small amount of disbelief.

"It was at first. A lot of what I saw and still see is without context. Much of it I wasn't mature enough to fully understand when I first saw them," she said with a cute blush. "However, if nothing else, there was one fact made very, very clear to me as I began to understand my abilities and what they can do."

"And what's that?" you ask with a small amount of trepidation.

"Without you, I have no future," she says with the utmost seriousness.

"No pressure," you mutter bitterly.

She's immediately apologetic. "I-I'm sorry."

"It's..." you hesitate. It wasn't fine and it was her fault for your inner turmoil. "Something... So if I'm so important and we've met before, who are you?"

She smiles sadly at you. "That's something for you to figure out. In the mean time, you can call me Delphi."

You smirk, catching the reference to the Greek 'Oracle of Delphi'. "Clever."

Delphi's pleased smile makes you want to find excuses for her to smile at you more.

"So where are we?" You ask at last.

"The Astral Plane, the place where all people with psychic abilities like us get their power," she informs you in a slightly awed tone.

"How'd we get here? Did you bring us here?" you continue to ask.

Delphi shakes her head as she turns in place taking in everything around her. "I'm only connected to this place by tiny threads. I'm a part of it, as it's a part of you. YOU summoned ME here. This is your domain and everything you see, you control, productions of your will."

"Are you okay?" you ask in concern for her.

"It's... Overwhelming, trying to get the full scope of this place. I thought that I could see before, but my powers are so much... More here. I'm seeing things I couldn't before, things I couldn't even imagine..."she replied, immersing herself in everything that she could perceive. In fact, she was immersing herself in it so much, she began to fade as if she was becoming one with the plane- losing all sense of self.

"Hey, hey, hey!" You shout at her as you forcibly make her face you. Cupping her face in your hands, you stare deeply into her eyes. "Focus! Focus... Focus on me, come back to me." While you are saying this to her, you reach out and touch your mind to hers, shocked to find that there was already an established link present. Using that link, you slowly and gently pull her back from the brink of nonexistence. Gone was the unsure boy who nearly lobotomized a teacher who attempted to help you understand your psychic ability and in his place was a fully actualized male psychic who was certain enough in his abilities and sense of self to act as an existential anchor for another being. "Come back to me, stay with me..."

Slowly Delphi's breathing evened out, her eyes came back into focus as they lost their otherworldly glow. She blinked a couple of times in surprise. She then whispered breathlessly to you. "Y-You saved me..."

"I couldn't not save you..." you reply back. The urge to do so had been instinctive. You didn't think about it, you simply did it and with far more facility than you'd ever managed concsiously with that particular ability.

The two of you touch foreheads for a brief moment in mutual relief. Your hands gently slide down from her face to her neck and then her shoulders as her arms slip around your waiste and you each pull each other into a hug, as if both of you were confirming that she still existed. After what seems like several long moments, Delphi pulls back from you. "Thank you..." she whispers before laying a gentle kiss upon your lips.

"Any time," you reply with a smile. Almost instantly your worries about her, the reservations you had, begin to melt away.

Something just happened and you aren't sure what to make of it. You're not even sure exactly as to what happened at all, only that whatever it was, it did in fact happen. You also know for certain that if you saw Delphi on the physical plane, you'd recognize her instantly. If not on sight, then through the psychic bond you aren't fully certain hasn't always existed.

A mystery for another time.

"I think it's best if I sent you back now," you say to her.

She nods in shaky acceptance. "Y-Yeah... I'll see you soon."

"Looking forward to it," you say, surprising yourself. When all this started, you would have been glad to never see her again, but now you feel as if in some fundamental way, that she is a part of you, connected to you in some unseeable way that is more intimate than anything you'd ever experienced before.

This time as she faded, you didn't worry, as all was as it should be.

"Time to be going myself," you say out loud before opening your eyes and seeing a worried Jennifer kneeling over you, causing you to jump slightly at seeing her unexpectedly.

Fortunately, you had enough presence of mind to not send her flying through the room- something that would have happened had you not just been through your ordeal with Delphi. Kathy is hugging herself while being held by a concerned looking Allyson who was keeping your sister's cousin from pacing across the room. You can feel the unease rolling off of all of them. You make an attempt to lighten the mood by asking as nonchalantly as possible, "What's up?"