All Your Fevered Dreams (Talia)

[Xavier & Jaxon Wright]

The night had been an eventful one, no doubt, but Jaxon and Xavier had been in quite the strange mood considering the specific thought crossing Xavier's mind. Talia, and how he truly hoped he was forgiven. It was agreed beforehand that Jaxon needed to be the one to apologize because it wouldn't make any sense if Xavier did - he'd be a bumbling fool spewing words out that made absolutely no sense. 

Jaxon felt bad for his brother in that way, considering that he had always sought approval of those around him, and when he didn't get it, it made him more anxious than both of them could handle. It was torture. 

Thank you, Jax. Xavier was still in the background, watching as Jaxon went through the motions of preparing themselves for bed. 

'For what? Telling that girl that it wasn't you? That hardly warrants a thanks.'

Even still, I appreciate it. The only question I have is what you told her that made her that angry. 

'It's not important.'

To me it is.

'Well, it's not to me. And I'm not going to repeat it.' Jaxon had then slipped the covers back and had sat down on the mattress when Xavier pulled into control and Jax was left a bit breathless and even stunned. 

You're going to tell me because whatever it was that you said had a direct impact on me and it sure as hell hurt her.

'Xav, it's past midnight. At least give us a chance to sleep, then.' He was exhausted, and didn't feel like getting any shit for what he did. It was bad enough he had to apologize for it when he didn't do anything wrong. But obviously Xavier would think so, to which he wasn't ready to deal with just yet. 

Fine, tomorrow. But you're going to tell me.

'Fine' And then after that last word, everything went silent and they both drifted off into unconsciousness, the haze of a dream coming to fruition.

Light blinded the young boy, his hair ruffled by the sea breeze that blew in from his right, letting Xavier know that it was time to cut it again. It was nearly sundown, and the air smelled of salt despite the fact that he lived nowhere near the ocean. He turned his head around, trying to determine where he was at, and why he had found himself there but came up with nothing. 

Until a familiar voice entered his subconscious.

'Xavier! Hi!' 

Hey, dude.

'It's been a while, I think. Did you go to school today or make friends?'

It's been like twelve hours, Jax. And no, it's saturday. Weekend.

'Oh, it is? That sucks. I would try and make all the friends I could even if it was Saturday.'

I just sat in my room and played my GameBoy. It's nothing special. Anyway, where are we? Xavier looked around, pointing out the unfamiliar setting that he and his new friend had found themselves in. The water was pristine, crystal clear and the sunset was phenomenal in every which way, but Xavier wasn't the one who was appreciating it. Jaxon, however, did love the atmosphere, but couldn't give an answer to the other boy's question. He also hadn't noticed the sudden presence of another on the beach with him, watching silently from afar. 

'No clue. It's really cool, though. Like /really/ cool.'

Oh well, at least it wasn't a nightmare.

[Talia Spencer]

Today had been an unusual day to say the least.

After all, it wasn't just any day that a person found out that the guy they had started to date had a second soul sharing their body and that said second soul hated her and it was him not the one she was dating who had been rude beyond belief to her. Needless to say, as much relief as the revelation brought, it also came with equal amounts of confusion.

To say there was a lot on her mind would be an understatement. Since Jaxon had left her apartment, she had been pondering the situation, and even now, long into the night, she didn't have any real answers.

On one hand, it had been confirmed that Xavier did truly like her. She liked him so that certainly wasn't an issue. It had been such a relief to know that he hadn't said those things to her, pretended not to know her...

But on the other, learning about Jaxon made everything inherently complicated.

How did you date someone when another person lived inside them? Well, the mechanics might be possible, but beyond a certain point, how could a relationship grow? Then add to the fact that said second person loathed her and had no qualms being quite vocal about it. It would be hard enough even without that factor, but including it... what chance did her and Xavier ever really have? Jaxon had already proven he wouldn't mind intervening and damaging things between them. How could an already tenuous situation survive such a potentially toxic influence?

Talia knew she probably should walk away. It was the wiser option. It would spare her from what seemed to be almost inevitable pain. And yet...

She liked Xavier. A lot. She was already invested in what was growing between them and... she didn't want to give up on it. She wanted to try and see it through. But she was also afraid of what might happen. Of how hard that would end up being.

These were the thoughts that ran in what seemed to be a never-ending loop in her mind. She had tried to sleep hours ago but she couldn't. Her mind was far too active for that. So she had finally given up trying.

She had instead found the jacket she had stuff in the back of her closet. It was Xavier's jacket, the one he had given her on their first date. He had told her to hold on to it until their second. After the incident at his office, she had nearly thrown it away at least a dozen times. She'd considered taking it to work and leaving it for him there. In the end she had done neither. She told herself it was because she hadn't cared, but in truth, she had. She hoped that at the least he might want it back. If she still had the jacket, she didn't have to admit it was over.

Now she wrapped that very jacket around her, breathing in its scent - his scent - and she couldn't deny the comfort that offered her in and of itself. Xavier had already quickly become important to her. Given that he had asked Jaxon to make things right with her - which seemed a reluctant effort at best - she had to assume that she was important to him too, on some level at least.

So wasn't this worth fighting for? Or would it only leave her feeling more broken than she had been when she first returned to Pilot Ridge to begin with?

Somehow though, curled up in the warmth of his jacket, sleep finally found her.

-------

The dreamwalker stood at the edge of a beach, just within the line of trees that bordered the sand. The ocean was crystal clear... it was a beautiful sight, but what drew her eye was a boy who stood on the beach. She might have approached him were it not for a voice.

'Xavier! Hi!'

She froze instantly, hiding behind a tree. Was that...? She listened to the conversation, soaking it in as she realized what had happened.

She had been thinking so much of Xavier and Jaxon that her subconscious had sent her into their dream. A dream where they were still young, and from what she was hearing, very different. It seemed strange that she could hear both voices, and that she could distinguish them. Of course, by entering a dream, she connected with their subconscious, and thus their mind. That was the only way she could hear both of them.

Listening to them speak though, she was shocked to hear it was Jaxon rather than Xavier who spoke of wanting to make friends. The enthusiasm... It didn't sound as though it could be the same surly, immature man who had been so quick to push her away.

What had happened to change him, she wondered.

Part of her knew she should respect their privacy, try to leave now before she heard anything more. Yet... her power was stubborn she knew. The difficulty of a power that was ruled by her subconscious. She was here for a reason, and she had to learn what that was. Besides, truth be told, she was curious to learn more, and to see if this dream might somehow lead her to the answer she sought.

[Xavier & Jaxon Wright]

And as it so happened, the fact that Jaxon was always so bright and cheery seemed to have an equal effect on the boy. It was odd, feeling as though his own mind was crowded, like his mind was being forced aside for room for another. Not to mention that when he returned to his original frame of mind, it felt completely empty. How could one go from feeling completely full to complete... not in just a single hour or so?

Or at least, that's what it felt like.

I think it's okay. It's just a sunset and some water. Xavier offered a single shrug in response, kicking a larger seashell from the sand into the water, spraying his pant leg in the process. A low curse came from his lips, to which Jaxon seemed utterly entranced by.

'I wish I could do that,' His voice seemed wistful, and something that the boy could not understand even slightly.

Do what?

'Kick. Walk. Anything. I wonder how it feels. I mean, i can feel it sort of, but it's not the same.'

Xavier had never thought about it that way - When he had to walk to school, he would complain because he'd get tired and it was too far anyway. So why, out of all things, would Jaxon want that life? It seemed pretty normal to Xavier, so standard, so Xav couldn't fathom even not having it at all.

Oh how privileged Xavier really was.

It's nothing really special, especially when you have to walk to school.

'I wouldn't mind. School sounds fun. You say you see a bunch of people and you have to learn a bunch of things at school.'

School is torture. And learning is stupid. Like when am I ever going to use x plus six equals seven. It's stupid.

'I don't even know what you said.'

Good, you're lucky you don't

'But I want to, I want to learn everything that you tell me. Because it sounds fun.'

Fun wasn't that, Xavier wanted to say, but as soon as he attempted to word it, the scene changed. They stood in the middle of the football field, dead in the middle of a crowd with eyes on them, and laughter heard all around. All Xavier could do was sit in the back of their mind while Jaxon picked themselves off the floor, fists clenched and ready to take on whoever had done this to them.

[Talia Spencer]

Talia watched and listened - well, mostly listened - to the scene before her. Truthfully, she still struggled to believe the other voice was truly Jaxon. She heard a little boy who wanted to learn and experience the world. But the man she'd met... well, he'd seemed much more content to shut the world out. He hadn't even bothered to try with her after all. He'd just judged and lashed out.

She still wondered why. After all, no one did something without a reason. Had he treated her like any other person or had he taken exception to her? Had she seen his average or his worst?

Xavier on the other hand seemed like any other young boy. The sort who'd rather play than deal with boring things he didn't care about.

Suddenly the scene shifted, becoming a football field. While the boy stood in the middle of the field, surrounded by a crowd of people, Talia was grateful to discover that she stood by the bleachers, able to avoid drawing attention to herself as she watched the scene unfold.

[Xavier & Jaxon Wright]

Freak. Freak. Freak. all in unision, causing Jaxon to nearly shake with rage. Xavier sat in the background attempting to hide from the whole ordeal. They hated them - after everything he tried to do, they still hated him. They hated both of them. Both.

They hate us, Xavier mumbled.

'They're fucking bastards, that's what they are.'

Because at 14, kids could be brutal. Even kids at a school for meta-humans still were as judgmental as they would have been in a normal school. The issue with Xavier, he found in the two years Jaxon knew him, was the fact that he was living for other people. Jaxon originally had wanted to see the world - was excited for it, really - but then the minute he got there, it was corrupt and evil. Hurtful words consistently strung about just for the sake of being 'cool' and 'popular'.

"Freaks?" Jaxon repeated audibly, his fists clenched but a coarse half smile gracing his features. "I'm not the one who just turns into a puddle of liquid metal." Jaxon wasn't particularly large, standing at 5'7" at that point, but that didn't deter him. Even as he stood up against upperclassmen.

"I'm also not the one who turns into a chicken. So before you call us fucking freaks, you should look at your pathetic powers. Go lay an egg, Aliya. And all of you get out of my damn face, because I know for a fact you won't throw a punch unless you want Dr. Neville to sit you down in his office everyday for three weeks."

Because while Jaxon may not have been the best fighter, that reminder was enough for most people to leave. They had to do it at one point because Xavier had went with the crowd and had done something stupid, but Jaxon didn't plan on doing it again. Oh no.

Instead, the largest of the bunch came forth - A Junior who was a Terrakinetic. "Oh but I don't have to throw a punch." He said just before he tore at the earth, effectively bringing Jaxon to the ground. And then, as the crowd laughed, they seemed to disperse. "Multiple Personalities freak," the guy laughed, leaving Jaxon frustrated and Xavier completely gone.

God dammit.

[Talia Spencer]

It was so strange to her, being able to hear both of them at once. More than that, much as she didn't recognize the man she had briefly met in either the child or the teenager she was seeing here, she could still easily differentiate him from Xavier. She could sense it. Having only just learned there were two of them, it was beyond weird to be so aware of the distinction.

What she found though was that it was even harder to stand there and watch as they were bullied. Called freak again and again. Every impulse had her wanting to run out to that field and just make the torture stop. Because it didn't matter if that child was Jaxon or Xavier at the time... it was still part Xavier. More than that, it was a cruel and heartless thing to watch, let alone to permit to happen. But this was a dream, she had to remind herself. It wasn't real...

No, that wasn't right. It wasn't just a dream. There was truth woven into it, a memory. She wasn't sure if this exact situation had played out in their past, but the idea of it had. It was difficult to explain, but she could feel the difference between a dream that was grounded in reality and one that was pure fantasy. Dreams were complicated of course, there was always some grounding - that's what the subconscious was all about - but there was a difference nonetheless.

So she forced herself to watch as Jaxon stood his ground while Xavier seemed to slip away. She found herself rooting for him, impressed with the way he handled himself. Seeing something in him she had never expected to. But even that wasn't enough it seemed, as a student still sent him to the ground, mocking him as he laughed. Her heart ached and in that moment, all her anger for Jaxon was forgotten. She only saw the hurt boy and wanted to help him. She even began to take a step forward before she remembered, it was only a dream. If she appeared in their dreams... well, it would make a complicated situation even more complicated. So she stayed in place, watching helplessly as they suffered.

[Xavier & Jaxon Wright]

The unfamiliar pull of Xavier from consciousness left their body as Xavier fell into a state of sleep, the only escape they both had from the troubles of the world. However, in doing so, Xavier left Jaxon to his own devices, in a body in which he rarely ever sported alone.

In that moment, it was simply Jaxon. Wherever he stepped, Xavier was not there, and no matter how many times he had to do it, it still scared him shitless. Xavier, come back! Jaxon panicked, completely unaware of dream manipulator that followed him silently, listening into the words he thought. Even still, the youngest soul pulled himself up off the ground and began walking away from the scene that had just occurred. Away from the reminder. Please don't go, but his pleas fell upon deaf ears as the call was not returned.

Jaxon couldn't understand him at times; he couldn't begin to comprehend why he let others push him around and still wear his heart on his shoulder. Dammit Xav, why are you so breakable?

Just as his mind offered that thought, he found himself at the bleachers at the side of the field. Everyone was gone, including Xav, and Jax was not ready to go back inside without his brother. Not yet.