"It's not your fault" they'd said "you didn't know how badly he was weakened' they'd said. Hadn't he?
Suzaka had always known one day he would push and someone would break instead of bend. Be seriously hurt, even die. When he was very young, hardly able to teleport or use his telekinesis, he had gotten into a fight with another kid. The kid had been mocking him for not being able to teleport yet and had been calling him names. Suzaka had told the kid to go away and never talk to anyone ever again. He had hoped with all his heart that the kid would stop being mean to him.
The kid had a seizure. Synaptic overload they'd said. His father had watched the other boy convulse and had put a hand on Suzaka's shoulder. He had been proud of what Suzaka had done.
The kid was rendered mute. Suzaka's telepathic push had closed off the physical network between his speech center and his mouth. The kid could still understand everyone just fine, but everything he said was garbled and he couldn't physically make more than a whine or a growl. In the end, his parents had sent him away. Suzaka's father hadn't even apologized to them, and Suzaka was forbidden from doing so himself. He had permanently scarred someone.
Suzaka never forgot. He always held back, always remembered not to push people. For years and years and years he'd only done small 'suggestion' pushes that came naturally: He'd never targeted anyone again. He'd been a disappointment to his father, who thought his original push had been a fluke, but he kept his integrity to himself.
It wasn't a fluke. Suzaka felt people try to push him every so often throughout his life, and they'd come up against the iron wall of his will. They'd see his mental energy loom over them, a threat even from a distance. Some people would try to challenge him, get a glimpse of his resistance and just walk away. Sometimes they'd push anyway and end up hurting themselves. What happens when an unstoppable force becomes an immovable object? The degree of power he possessed was oppressive, even to him; but he'd managed.
Now, in a misguided attempt to save his friend, his brother, he'd pushed Ikali's mind to the breaking point. He'd held his friend's will in the palm of his hand and controlled everything down to his breathing. Direct, specific pushes that terrified him with their effectiveness. Suzaka's power was once again an unstoppable force. A natural disaster.
He knew he could bypass the conscious mind now. He knew he could break someone at a core level. He knew all he had to do was flex and he could stop everything. When he actually expended effort-
They said Ikali would get better, but still: He'd broken his best friend.
It was the single most devastating thing to ever happen to him, and that thought was as selfish as the rest of this. He could have let Ikali rage. Could have quarantined off the area Ikali was in like it was a Fai episode, but he had selfishly wanted his friend to calm down and now Ikali was locked in his own head for who knew how long.
There was nothing Suzaka could do for Ikali. Not directly, at least.
Only one thing he could still do. Jonyiou wanted him to be a telepathic monster? He could do that. He always does that.
Suzaka grabbed his leather coat, his cigarettes and his gun belt before pausing and looking at himself in the mirror. His eyes were wild; too wide and too tight at the corners, his shirt was rumpled and his coat made him look worn and desperate. He supposed he was desperate.
Finding the location of the closest lab was too easy. Suzaka went there alone with minimal effort and opened his mind to the push, sending his telepathic command out as far as he could. "Come to me,' it said.
The clones came in droves and stood in a disorderly mob in front of him. Ten, fifty, nearly a hundred. He stood in front of them blowing through their mental shielding like a hurricane. A few weaker ones convulsed and dropped dead in the back, and Suzaka didn't care. He stared straight into the mob and pushed.
Tell me where Jonyiou is.
