John gave a subtle nod to Cole, turning to Finn. "Okay, so...you're not gonna like where this plan goes...but the key is trust. John started, then was caught completely off guard as Cia came up behind him. He blushed somewhat and froze up a little when her chest touched his back and her sleeves went on his chest, but it was unclear as to whether this was caused by nerves, embarrassment, or...something else. After all, even he wasn't sure what to feel...as she did threaten to kill him only an hour earlier. "H-Hold on...I wasn't c-captured! I wanted t-to help! I...I-I...fuuuck..." He said as Cia walked away, though not in as confident a tone as before.
John then regained his composure and turned back to Finn. "...As I was saying, we need trust for this to work..." John said as he slowly took his two batons out and gently set them aside. "You need to trust me for this to work...so...here goes! You know I am an agent of the D.M.A., but you do not know that I never wanted to be. I obeyed them out of fear...they held my life in their hands...told me to kill and capture...but I hated it. I made a vow to only kill Gifted who possessed lethal abilities...and I proceeded to spare, and even give aide to, those Gifted who did not fall under my criteria. But, in truth, I lied to them more than just to protect innocent Gifted...currently, the D.M.A. thinks that I am only a Type 4...a Tracker...but I'm more, I am a Telepath. My power works by allowing me to see fractions of other people's memories and visions, and I can use this ability to scan the minds of nearby people to find a Gifted among them. I will need to tap into the memories you share with the one called Jessica...and I'll need you to show me everything, because I will only retain a small fraction of it all...and I'll need every bit I can get to find her in there." John explained, then looked over to see Cia had returned with a box and was now sitting on one of the stools in front of the counter, watching him. He turned back to Finn, and this time his voice seemed to be softer. "Look...you have no reason to trust me...but let me tell you this; the D.M.A. can, and will, kill me for helping you. And you will most definitely kill me if I refuse to help you. So the way I see it, I'm going to die either way...so why not die doing the right thing?"
"If you're ready to trust me, and if you ignore how cheezy this is about to sound, we can begin..." John stated simply, extending his hands. "Just grab my hands and let your memories flow freely...and, uh...you might feel a bit of a kick..."
Finn was wary of trusting this man. He didn't know how much he wanted him to see either. Remember. This is for Jessica. It doesn't matter what else happens. Finn sighed before stepping forward and extending his hands. "I don't know how much you'll see, but if I hear that you have breathed a word of it to anyone, then I will set you on fire," Finn said, his eyes narrowed to attempt to intimidate John. Finally, he grabbed his hands and began to open up his mind, though he attempted to block out anything about his family.
When Finn grabbed John's hands, there was a sudden jolt followed by a loss of consciousness. To anyone else, they both simply appeared to be standing in place and suffering from paralysis, as neither of them moved saved for a few bouts of minor trembling.
Finn was suddenly watching as he walked over to Jessica. He knew where he was. This was the day they first met. Smiles were exhanged along with hand shakes. Finally, Finn asked a question. So can I call you Jess? The past Jessica fixed him with a steely glare. "Never, ever call me Jess," she said. Finn turned to find John standing next to him. Watching. Watching his life.
John seemed to have been watching the memory with a rather aloof behavior, but when Finn turned to look at him he snapped out of it and looked back. "Ugh...I'm not used to this...I can feel it sliping into my mind...but it's not enough. We must go deeper. Any two people can meet each other, but I need something that's more unique...something I can retain..." John explained.
Finn nodded at what John said and suddenly the world around them started to fade. And then suddenly Finn saw himself laying on the ground with a woman holding a gun to his head. Suddenly a flash of blonde hair appeared and knocked the woman away. She began slamming her fists into the woman until she finally stopped fighting. She stood up and walked over to Finn, helping him up. "You owe me one Rookie," she said. Finn turned to John and spoke. "That's the first time she saved my life. That unique enough for you?"
"Yeah...that'll narrow it down...but some D.M.A. agents will experience the same thing...a lot of us will work in teams from time to time...but this is good. We're beginning to get somewhere..." John said, just before there was a flash of light. John turned to look, and suddenly rain began to fall, followed by another few flashes of light. John knew what was happening and turned to Finn. "Oh no...brace yourself!"
Finn felt a kick as light flashed. John warned him to brace himself for whatever was about to happen. Light flashed in front of him suddenly and all Finn could think was that they'd been betrayed and now John was invading his mind. But when the light cleared, he was somewhere he didn't recognise. He turned to John and asked, "What the hell is going on?"
"It's a just a bit of a side effect; we're about to experience one of my memories..." John told Finn, then held out his hand to touch the rain, but the rain seemed to be passing right through the both of them.Suddenly there was a voice that John seemed to recognize, as he immediately spun around to look. There were two men standing outside on a portch, and they seemed to be speaking to a couple standing just inside the door. One of the two men was John, and the other man was the D.M.A. Officer that John reported to at the time.
"May we come inside?" Asked the Officer.
"We do not have a child, why are you here?" Demanded the man who stood inside.
"Wrong answer." Stated the Officer, just before pushing the couple aside to enter the house. "We know you have a child, and we know that it is a Gifted. Now tell us where the child is!"
"This is a violation of our rights! We-"
"Oh shut up! You're harboring a criminal, you have no rights!" The Officer interrupted, then turned to John. "Search the house and find the child! I'll deal with these two..."
John nodded, and headed off to search through the house. Soon after he left the company of the others, yelling and screaming could be heard, mixing with the sounds of a struggle taking place. John eventually found the child, a young girl of about 13 or 14...she was curled up in a cabinet under the sink of a second floor bathroom.
Suddenly, as if taken aback by the memory, John breathlessly stuttered out a statement. "Wait...I know her...she's the girl that spoke to me at the orphanage..."
In the memory, John asked the young girl what her name was. "M-Mayumi..." She answered in a quivering tone.
"...I'm not going to hurt you Mayumi." John replied, turning his head when he heard his name being called from downstairs. "Don't move...stay here until I come back for you" He then got up and ran downstairs to meet up with the D.M.A. Officer, who had been cut by a knife and was bleeding quite badly. The two parents, however, were lying dead on the ground.
"Did you find the child?" Asked the Officer as he walked over to John, holding his wound.
John seemed to think for a moment before answering, staring at the Officer's wounds. "Yes, sir. She's incapacitated upstairs, waiting to die." He said darkly, looking down to see a bloodied kitchen knife laying by his foot.
"Good job, let's not keep her waiting, shall we?" The Officer said and began walking towards the stairs, but didn't get very far before falling to the ground with a knife in his back.
Grabbing for his radio, John called in to report that the Gifted was terminated, but the Officer had been killed in the process. Then as he proceeded to the stairs himself, the memory faded away into nothingness.
"So that was her name...Mayumi...I wonder if she recognized me at the orphanage..." John muttered to himself as he turned to look at Finn. "If you don't have anything else to show me...then let's end this..." He said in a soft voice.
Finn was looking at John with a different look. He could see the pain in his eyes at what he'd just seen. Something tugged inside of him. A thought that came from the more compassionate side of his brain. "I'm going to show you one more thing. A time where I shared something with Jessica," Finn said. He opened up his brain and suddenly, in a flash of light, he and John were standing in his and Jessica's living room. He and Jessica were sitting on the couch and Finn was speaking. he was relaying to Jessica the story of his parents, and how they had died. He turned to John. "I don't know if this will help but this is the night I told Jessica about my parent's deaths," Finn said. "Now let's go."
John simply nodded at Finn, and then everything faded to black. After a few seconds both of them would open their eyes and regain consciousness. John stretched a little and yawned, as the whole experience was fairly tiring, then walked over to the bar counter.
"Now comes the part of my plan that you're not gonna like..." He started, leaning against the bar counter. "I'm gonna need one of you to go in with me as a captive. I've been out for too long, and I'm sure that the Warden that took Jessica, named Pariah, is sure to think something is up if I come back empty-handed. But don't worry, I can take your things in with me. Any takers?"