These characters are under copyright by Takashi Shiina, Rokurou Ogaki, Shogakukan, Sentai Filmworks and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.

Prelude – A Promise

Andy Hinomiya had known it wouldn't be easy to say goodbye to the friends and comrades of P.A.N.D.R.A., who had somehow become the family he'd always longed for, and never thought he'd have. He'd thought saying goodbye to Kyousuke Hyoubu would be the hardest. Hyoubu was a father to the others, save for Magi, to whom he was a brother, sometimes a much older one and conversely, other times a much younger one. But to Andy… part of why he was leaving was to figure out exactly who Hyoubu was to him: father, brother, or something more? It would be impossible to discover if he stayed, especially with Yoh Fujiura distracting him, when he needed to determine who Yoh was as well: a brother or a potential lover?

He had other reasons for leaving, though. Andy wanted to return to the government orphanage that had raised him and an entire generation of other unwanted and unloved psychic children. He had been an outcast even there, marked as a freak on sight by his heterochromatic eyes, the right one gray and the left gold, scoring as psychic on every government test, yet displaying no discernible power. How many times had he heard the other children demand, "Get away from us, freak! You make us sick!" and not realized they had meant it literally, that his power counteracting theirs was physically making them feel ill?

He'd been bullied and beaten his entire childhood, until he learned to not only fight back, but to be tough enough to take on an entire group of attackers singlehandedly and win. It had been a valuable skill set for later in life, during his brief and disastrous stint in the military.

His gold left eye had since turned jet black, the price for saving Hyoubu, for miraculously being able to seal away the bulk of the powers of the man who had formerly been the most powerful psychic on earth. It was the height of irony that Andy's only power was to rob others of theirs, and that the monumental act that had raised him to the level of most powerful psychic in the world had simultaneously robbed him of that power, unless it was merely lying dormant within him. Regardless, he was of no real use to his friends like this. Worse, he was a liability.

The Director had done as promised, after he was convinced he'd killed Andy: he'd removed all trace of Andy every working for the U.S.E.I. as a Special Investigator. To the world, Andy Hinomiya was a dishonorably discharged U.S. vet, an escaped convict form a foreign psychic jail, and a member of the criminal organization P.A.N.D.R.A.: a wanted fugitive. Worse, he and Hyoubu were both accused of murdering the Director. To Hyoubu, it was just another body added to his horrifically impressive count, but Andy had never killed anyone. He still hadn't: the lab's automated defense system and Hyoubu's former commanding officer held that dubious distinction. But because of that and his P.A.N.D.R.A. affiliation, he was now on the Most Wanted list of the world's psychic criminals, his face and statistics in every international police and government database. He needed to not only lay low, but to try to clear his maligned name.

More, he needed to find out what that name meant. Who was he? Who had his parents been? His father's last name was Hinomiya, he knew he was of Japanese descent, but he had no idea what race his mother was, or what her maiden name was, or even what their first names had been. Did he have siblings he'd never met? Were his parents normals, or psychics posing as normals, to fit into the normal world? Were they alive or dead? Would they care whether he was?

"You're leaving?" Yugiri whispered, more denial and accusation in her quavering voice than question, her eyes filling with tears and her lips quivering. For the first time Andy truly felt like the lowlife criminal he was now accused of being.

He knelt down in front of the tiny girl who had somehow become such an enormous part of his world. "Only for a while. Not forever," he assured her. "I'll be back. I promise. Pinky swear," he said, holding out his pinky, as he'd seen other kids do, when he was little. No one had ever wanted to swear with him, to even touch him, of course. He buried the old pain deep in the cemetery in his mind, along with the rotting corpses of all the other childhood sorrows that still sometimes, zombielike, came back to life and threatened to bury him.

Yugiri looked at him utterly perplexed.

"It's something children do," he explained. "You hold out your pinky, and curl it around mine, and shake it, like shaking hands."

She shook her head silently, and he was surprised how much the refusal hurt, but his own pain was forgotten when the tears welling in her eyes started spilling down her cheeks.

He looked around desperately at the others, but they were glaring at him, for making Yugiri cry. Magi had taken the news of his leaving stoically, Momiji took it in stride, Yoh pretended not care, and Momotaro had been indignant, but Yugiri was devastated.

Andy lifted his left hand towards her helplessly, and his frantic eyes fell on the military watch on his wrist. He'd kept it for reasons of practicality, after removing the tracking device inside and joining the U.S.E.I., because it was reliable and nearly indestructible, but also it was a constant reminder of why he hated psychics. He quickly unfastened the strap, and took it off. "Hold out your hand," he instructed.

Intrigued, she did as he asked, holding out her right hand, instead of her left. He carefully wrapped the leather strap around her narrow wrist, and fastened it at the tightest setting, thankful for the slender wrists that had been a bane of his existence, both as a child and adult. It hung down loosely off her wrist, but her hand was big enough that it wouldn't slip off.

"I'm lending you my watch. It's my only memento from when I was in the U.S. military. It's very special, because they only issue these watches to soldiers in their Psychic Squads. Normals aren't allowed to wear them." Of course it was to track them and monitor them, another way to brand them as freaks, but Yugiri didn't need to know that.

Fortunately, although he couldn't actively use his power anymore, after sealing Hyoubu's away, it yet hummed along as background low level interference, so those with telepathy still couldn't read his thoughts and those with psychometry couldn't read his possessions. He wasn't certain whether the active portion of his power would be gone until Hyoubu's was released again, or whether he just needed time to recover. He wasn't even sure which he hoped it would be.

"This way, you'll know I'm going to come back, because I want my watch back. And when I come back, I'll bring you a watch, to trade for it, one just like it, so we can have the same one, the way you and Hyoubu have the same charm," he added in inspiration, not having any idea how he was going to acquire another one, but determined to do so. Unlike the people from his past, the ones he'd always despised, he never made promises he couldn't keep.

Her eyes widened and she clasped her left hand tightly about the outer strap, holding her right hand against her chest, against her heart. "Thank you, Andy," she said softly, and to his overwhelming relief, her lips slipped into a small smile. It was like seeing the sun against after a week of storms. A palpable weight lifted off of his chest.

He gave her a hug, and she hugged him back fiercely, and he found himself swallowing hard, repeatedly, and forcibly reminding himself he had valid reasons for leaving, one of the most important among them that Yugiri would be safer with him gone, at least for a little while."Until we meet again, Yugiri," he whispered.

He cleared his throat and stood, exchanging a few final words with everyone in the room. "Say goodbye to Hyoubu for me, alright?" he asked the others. He was relieved his voice didn't sound as scratchy as his throat suddenly felt. He needed to go, quickly, or he wouldn't be able to leave at all. He turned, Yoh's and Yugiri's faces branded in his mind.

The ride in the elevator was mercifully brief, and he walked quickly through the lobby and then away from the hotel. It was inevitable that he'd meet Hyoubu on the sidewalk, heading towards the hotel as he left it. Fortunately, Hyoubu seemed to understand he had to go, even if he didn't quite know all the reasons why, and the words they exchanged were brief and not as painful as he'd dreaded they would be.

Andy took a deep breath and headed out into the city, for the moment at least easily blending in with the crowd, feeling like a shadowy shark swimming unnoticed below the school of oblivious normals.

0 0 0

Chapter 1 – False Alarm

Hyoubu's hands were balled into fists, outwardly in rage, but in reality to minimize their shaking, to hide as much raw emotion as he could from his crew, as the disturbing words continued to crawl across the bottom of the U.S. newsfeed for the fourth time, the program Yoh had written to bring ESP news to their immediate attention this time doing so with chilling ramifications: Special Report - Moments ago, one of the highest ranking individuals on the C.R.I.M.E. (CRiminal International Most-wanted ESP) list was killed in a daring U.S.E.I. assault. Stay tuned for this late-breaking story, as it unfolds.

The identity of the criminal had yet to be released. Magi was hard at work pulling in as many newsfeeds as possible onto the two dozen monitors strategically placed on the ship's bridge of the new Queen of Catastrophe, but information so far was sketchy at best. Yoh was attempting to enter the B.A.B.E.L. mainframe through one of the precious emergency use backdoors he'd installed. Japan and the U.S. were allies, but also, B.A.B.E.L. had worked more than one mission with the U.S.E.I. If anyone knew more, they would.

Not Hinomiya. Please not Hinomiya. Hyoubu was drowning in a sea of horrific images, both real and imagined, memories of the bloody bodies of the entire psychic squad he'd fought beside in the War mixed with those of Hinomiya gunned down, killed as they had been. His squad had been betrayed and murdered by the commander they had trusted: his only friends, his family, dead, all dead.

Not again. Not Hinomiya. It can't be. My fault, it's my fault. I never should have let him leave. I can't lose him. "I want a name!" Hyoubu demanded unreasonably, knowing they were working as hard and fast as they could, that they were almost as anxious as he was: Hinomiya was their family, too.

"Hah! I knew it couldn't be him!" Yoh stated triumphantly, his voice thick with relief. "It's Gregor Malayev, one of only six non-psychics to make their list. He and the other five are part of the terrorist organization Normal People. B.A.B.E.L. has an entire dossier on him. He made the Most Wanted list for bombing the New Hope Elementary School, that Comerican school even the regular normals were protesting, because they had such a high number of esper children enrolled. The school was attempting to show normals and espers could peacefully coexist. Their goal was to have all esper children enrolled in school, even the Level 4 through 7 who are currently banned in almost every country."

Yoh paraphrased off whatever B.A.B.E.L. report he was viewing, though they all knew the facts of that horrific crime. "The entire building was leveled, resulting in the deaths of 236 children and 83 teachers and staff, and the injury of 417 other children. Only 652 escaped without injury. It would have been a lot worse, if it wasn't for their teachers and those esper kids. Not a single adult survived and 27 of the kids he killed were psychics. From the survivor reports, without exception the adults and esper kids, and even a number of normal kids, tried to shield and protect their classmates from the multiple blasts and then tried to aid as many as they could escape from the rubble, lifting beams, and even holding up collapsing walls and ceilings so the others could escape, until they were eventually crushed when their powers or the structural strength failed. That bastard deserved to die."

"You're sure it wasn't Hinomiya?" Hyoubu demanded. "That B.A.B.E.L. didn't plant that information for you to find?"

"No, Major. CNN just released his name as well, and there's a picture. It's Malayev," Magi confirmed, relief audible in his normally impassive voice.

Hyoubu exhaled a shaky breath, forcing his muscles to relax, unclenching his fists, straightening his jacket. "Tch. I told you it wasn't him," he scoffed, in both Magi's and Yoh's general direction. "I'll be in my cabin." Without another word he teleported.

As soon as he arrived in his cabin, he clenched the fabric of his jacket over his heart, thankfully out of habit, not need. His heart felt fine, thanks to his Queen, and her generous transfusion and Andy sealing away the bulk of his power, which had been destroying him, in spite of his limiter. But he wasn't entirely pain free. His palms were stinging. He held out his hands, palms upward, frowning, and saw the bloody little crescents gouged into each, from his nails. He'd clenched his fists so tightly, he'd bled. He mended the minor damage psychically, watching the blood disappear.

The bloody images of Hinomiya, the ones his imagination had created, weren't so easy to dispel, as they filled his mind again. He went resolutely to the nightstand by his bed, and took out the personnel folder he kept there. It was thicker than their usual files. Magi had been particularly thorough, trying to convince him Hinomiya was a danger to them, and he'd added a number of candid shots of the man, which Hyoubu had himself added to, in the weeks Hinomiya was with them.

He opened the folder, to Hinomiya's serious face. He flipped to some of the other photos, the ones of him falling back into the pool, after Hyoubu pushed him, the ones of him frantically escaping the shark he'd teleported into the swimming pool, the ones of him playing pool with Yoh. His lips quirked in a fond smile, each picture calming him, and allowing him to suppress the false images. His folder on Hinomiya was nearly as extensive as his file on the Queen, and he'd known Hinomiya for a far shorter time.

0 0 0

Yoh was scowling at the spot Hyoubu had vanished from. "Do you think the Old Man's going to be OK, now that he knows it wasn't Hinomiya?" he asked Magi in concern. Even old as he was, since he hadn't allowed his cells to age, they hadn't truly worried about Hyoubu too much, when he wasn't doing anything particularly dangerous, until they found out he'd had a terminal medical condition that he'd been keeping the severity of from them. He'd played it off as a minor problem, when they'd seen the pills he'd been taking, rather than the death sentence it had been. Magi still hadn't quite forgiven Hyoubu for hiding the truth from him. He was even more of a mother hen now to the Major than he had been.

Just the thought made Yoh frown. He knew Magi wasn't in love with the Major, that Magi loved him like a brother, not a potential lover, but Magi didn't pay half the attention to him that he did to the Old Man. He still thought of him as that thumb-sucking little kid he and the Major had rescued from the war zone he'd been orphaned in.

"He's fine," Magi assured him. "Did B.A.B.E.L. realize you were in their system, or will we be able to use that backdoor again?"

"They didn't catch me," Yoh claimed confidently.

"Don't get cocky. One of these days, you'll think they didn't, and it will be a trap. Don't use that backdoor again, unless there's no other option," Magi cautioned.

"Who's the hacker here, you or me?" Yoh scoffed.

"You're forgetting who taught you," Magi chastised.

"I surpassed you a long time ago," Yoh gloated.

Magi scowled. "If I did nothing but play on the computer all day the way you do, I'd be better."

Yoh glared. "I'm not playing! I'm… never mind. Maybe if you got your face out of that stupid accounting program once in a while, you'd be competition." Magi didn't know about his website and graphic design business. No one did, not even the Major.

It had started out as a way to create backdoors in a number of useful businesses, ones they could spy on or rob, but it had grown from there. He'd designed hundreds of websites and logos; his personal hidden bank account now numbered in the tens of millions, since all his living expenses were paid by P.A.N.D.R.A. He was keeping it secret, so he could thumb his nose at them one day, if they pissed him off enough that he needed to leave. He wasn't ever going to be helpless and homeless again.

Magi glared. "If it wasn't for me, you and everyone else here wouldn't eat. It takes money to keep an organization like P.A.N.D.R.A., not to mention this ship, afloat. Our other ship was insured, but not against government attack. We lost $300 million when she sank, and that was just the value of the ship itself, not the contents. But we didn't just lose the vessel, we lost the library, our clothes, our electronics, all our possessions. Everything's had to be replaced. And on top of that, this ship cost $200 million, and it's not quite as big or impressive. You all act like it's just business as usual, but a hit that large is going to take time to recover from."

Yoh blinked. He didn't think he'd ever seen Magi angry, except for when the Old Man did something reckless and endangered himself. But right now, his hair was undulating. It was… sexy. Magi was always so damned impassive and restrained, it pissed him off. Now he looked primal, the full force of his power barely contained. It was a good look on him.

He found his eyes roving over the older man. He'd admired him in a bathing suit before, he had a hot body for such an old stick in the mud, but he'd honestly never looked twice at him in a suit. He realized now that regardless, Magi was definitely hot. Surprisingly, the suit actually added to his attractiveness now somehow, when in the past, Yoh and the others had always teased him, trying to get him to dress more casually.

"Forget it. You don't care. No one does," Magi snapped in disgust, brushing his hand through his hair in frustration, apparently taking his silent admiration as disinterest or lack of concern.

Yoh frowned, as he studied Magi's face and noticed the dark circles under his eyes, and tired lines he didn't remember ever seeing before. "What's wrong?" he asked, reaching out impulsively, touching his arm.

Magi jerked his arm away and stiffened. "Nothing. Run along and play," he replied acidly.

"Screw you!" Yoh snapped, and headed for the door. Had he seriously thought Mr. Starched and Pressed was hot? Just because Hinomiya was gone didn't mean he was that desperate.

0 0 0

Damn it. Yoh had reacted just as he'd expected, as he'd wanted, leaving him alone on the bridge, but though he'd purposefully chased him off, Magi simultaneously and foolishly wished he hadn't left so quickly and easily, that he would have stayed and tried harder to find out what was wrong. But Yoh was just a kid, not someone he could burden with their problems. Yoh was lucky, in that regard. The Major had rescued Magi too, but though chronologically a teenager, he hadn't been a kid for years. He'd fought tooth and nail to survive. Because of it, he'd been made Hyoubu's lieutenant almost immediately, as soon as the Major trusted him enough. Not that he trusted anyone, at least, not completely, and not at first.

He scowled. Except for Hinomiya. The one person Hyoubu shouldn't have trusted at all, he'd trusted immediately and completely, though he denied it. Although it was far more complex. The Major had trusted Hinomiya knowing he was untrustworthy, that he'd betray him, as if he'd wanted him to, needed him to, to prove all over again to himself and his crew that humans, psychic or normal, couldn't be trusted. Personally, Magi thought it was because the Major had started to trust and care too much, because of Kaoru Akashi and Koichi Minamoto's influence on him, and his own humanity had been growing far too strong to do what needed to be done, as leader of P.A.N.D.R.A.

Magi still couldn't believe how it had all worked out, in the end. Hinomiya had betrayed Hyoubu even worse than Magi had feared he would, he'd helped the U.S.E.I. attack and destroy their ship, capture Yugiri and nearly kill Hyoubu and the rest of them, but then Hinomiya himself had been betrayed and miraculously escaped certain death. And then Hinomiya saved the Major, twice, first from drowning, and then from his out of control power. He'd save Yugiri as well. And Hyoubu had forgiven him. They all had. Magi knew he had, as well, once he's seen Hinomiya would willingly die to protect them, that he was no longer a threat. Although he was potentially still a threat, of a sort: a threat to the Major's heart, if not his life. Magi didn't want to see the Major's recently healed heart break.

But right now he had more immediate concerns. P.A.N.D.R.A. was dangerously low on funds, on the liquid capital they needed to survive. Magi needed to ensure their operations weren't adversely impacted by it. He stared at the door Yoh had left from, cursing himself for being an idiot for feeling a twinge of longing as he did so, in the next moment. He was in danger of becoming a lovestruck fool, just like Hyoubu, if he wasn't careful, and he was fully and painfully aware that the only one Yoh had eyes for was Hinomiya, even if he didn't necessarily realize it yet. But the Major was completely obsessed with Kaoru Akashi, his Queen.

0 0 0

Minamoto watched over the girls in concern. They'd only just left Comerica, after the joint debriefing, and would still be on the plane for a number of hours, and this last mission had been particularly difficult and draining, physically, psychically and emotionally. The worst of it was, finally bringing the mass murderer of all those children to justice should have been a triumph, but in the end, the man had committed suicide, rather than be captured, and of course, his capture or death couldn't bring back the children he'd killed, or the hope that had been lost the day that spearhead school fell.

In the months following the school's destruction, all the other schools in the country with psychic children enrolled had expelled those children, for the safety of the rest of their students. In spite of the self sacrifice and bravery of those 27 psychic children, that single act of cruelty and terrorism had set back acceptance of psychic children by decades, at least in Comerica.

Schools elsewhere had been affected to a lesser extent. Thankfully, allies or not, Japan had refused to be swayed by Comerica's less tolerant education policies. Minamoto had still been able to convince the Ministry of Education to accept the girls as students, even though they were Level 7, the highest Level espers, opening the doorway for wider acceptance in Japan, and hopefully, eventually, peaceful coexistence with normals for all espers.

Without warning, Kaoru, who had nearly been asleep, sat bolt upright, a look of pure terror on her face.

Minamoto went to her immediately. "Kaoru! What's wr…"

"Kyousuke! Something's wrong with Kyousuke!" she cried, grabbing his arms, panic in her eyes.

Damn it. He hated to see that look, but more, he hated it was for Hyoubu.

"Don't worry. I'll find out what's happening," he promised as he dialed Director Tsubomi, as Aoi and Shiho, now wide awake as well, comforted Kaoru.

"Director, this is Minamoto. Kaoru is sensing Hyoubu's in trouble. Have the precognetics made any predictions, or are there any reports about P.A.N.D.R.A.?" he asked.

"No predictions or reports, but I have the same feeling as Kaoru. I was about to call you. We're… just a moment. Yes, damn it, let them in, on my authority! Just monitor which files they access or what questions they ask the mainframe. Only shut them down if they attempt to attack us, if they try to either delete or corrupt our files," she ordered.

"Director? What's happening?" Minamoto asked, frustrated to be so far from headquarters and unable to help.

"It appears P.A.N.D.R.A. is trying to access our mainframe, from one of those backdoors we discovered and have been monitoring. I'm letting them in because… oh. No wonder he's so upset. Thank goodness. It's fine. Tell Kaoru that Hyoubu will be alright in a moment. It was a false alarm. News just broke on your case, but the name of the target hasn't been released yet, just the fact that he was ranked high on the C.R.I.M.E. list, and Kyousuke apparently thought it was Hinomiya who had been killed," she explained. "P.A.N.D.R.A. is searching for information on the U.S.E.I. assault, but also running a clandestine search on Hinomiya's name in our database."

Minamoto's eyes widened. He'd seen the U.S.E.I. spy Hinomiya had worked his way into P.A.N.D.R.A.'s ranks, and that Hyoubu seemed particularly close to the man, but still, for him to be so affected... although Hinomiya had saved Hyoubu's life twice after his betrayal and miraculously regained Hyoubu's trust. For Hinomiya to have actually been able to overcome Hyoubu's power and seal it away, the bond of trust between the two men had to be particularly strong.

"What is it? What's happened to Kyousuke?" Kaoru demanded, tears in her eyes, the despair in her voice heart wrenching.

Minamoto cursed himself silently for not reassuring her immediately. "It's alright. Hyoubu's going to be fine. Apparently news was just released about Malayev's death, but his name hasn't been revealed yet, and Hyoubu thought it was Andy Hinomiya who was killed. Director Tsubomi said he should be fine in a few moments: they made sure P.A.N.D.R.A. was able to access the information about our case, so they'll know it wasn't Hinomiya," he explained.

"Thank goodness!" Kaoru cried in relief, and then her expression softened. "You're right. I feel it. He's alright now."

Minamoto gritted his teeth. He hated that she and Hyoubu had a connection like that, some sort of psychic link, although in the past, it had saved them both, on different occasions. He knew he was both jealous and resentful of the bond they shared, that as a normal, he'd never have that same closeness to Kaoru, but it was worse that it was Hyoubu, the man trying to manipulate her destiny into something it should never be.

But then Kaoru hugged him, and even knowing it was Hyoubu she wished she was hugging, he hugged her back. "Why don't you three get some rest, now that you know everything is alright? It's a long flight, and you more than deserve it." He'd try to arrange a vacation for them as soon as they got back. They needed some time off, after all the excitement of the past months.

"Only if you rest as well. You're much older, so you're more tired than we are," Kaoru said, both concern and devilment in her gaze.

"Old men need more sleep than children," Aoi agreed mischievously.

"I'm not that much older than you. Only ten years. And it's not like you're children anymore, now that you're sixteen. You're all young women now," Minamoto argued, realizing only after he'd said the words that he'd fallen into their trap, as they pounced.

"You're right! Ten years is nothing!" Aoi agreed.

"We're old enough to be brides!" Shiho said happily.

"Which one of us will you marry? Me, right?" Kaoru flirted, flinging herself on him.

"Sit down! Let go!" Minamoto, ordered, struggling in the arms of the three octopi who had trapped him, feeling relief wash over him. Kaoru still wasn't completely under Hyoubu's spell, and young woman or not, she truly was still a child at heart.