Carlos nodded. Damali positioned the staff over the center of Marlene's now-quiet chest, noticing that it no longer struggled as hard as it initially did to take in or release air. Damali's grip was slicked by nervous sweat. Her mind screamed a prayer, held Marlene's mind in constant monitor, begging her not to let go or flow into the Light.
Carlos closed his eyes. Searing silver strength held his mind. His initial impulse was to fight it and pull away, but he surrendered to the invasive sensation, and tried to find the green harmonic Cain mentioned. But this was his first time ever attempting such an advanced Neteru procedure. His focus repeatedly fractured as everything that had recently happened in the frontal consciousness of Cain's mind ripped into his.
"Focus," Cain ordered through his teeth, grappling with Carlos's untrained entry. "What you are witnessing with me and Damali is of little consequence. Go deep. One mind. One path. Healing." Total frustration made Cain open his eyes, which made the two junior Neterus stare at him. He looked at Damali. "Show him how to do it," Cain muttered, thoroughly disgusted. "If he cannot use sight, then tune his ear to the harmonic so he can do what must be done!"
Damali grasped Carlos's hands tighter as Marlene's chest went still. "Listen to me. Look into my eyes. Hear the sound in my head and follow that until the color takes over your mind. We're losing her."
Cain nodded and closed his eyes again. Damali settled down. Carlos closed his eyes but was anything but settled. In fact, so much was riding on his shoulders at this point that he wanted to stand and bolt. Not only was he shown to be the weaker Neteru in front of the entire team, his boyz--but also his woman, in front of her near lover, with her mother-seer's life hanging in the balance... and if Marlene died, it would be his fault. No one on the team would ever forgive him; just like he would never forgive himself.
The strength, this time, is in the surrender, a quiet female voice said within Carlos's mind. Oddly, it wasn't Damali's voice. He'd lost the quiet connection to her, which made him panic further. Being the better man, sometimes, means pushing beyond one's own pain in quiet surrender. You will win if you lose. You will never win if you do not learn when to retreat.
Zehiradangra's voice was so gentle and soothing within his mind that it made his shoulders relax. His breathing deepened as she hummed the right pitch within a sound chord that he could mentally follow and he slowly saw her jewel-green eyes filled with empathy. He watched them glow with compassion and caring and friendship until the whole of Cain's silver burning mind was threaded with the deep, resonant hue. He could feel layers of Damali's harmony wind into the mind-melody and run through his body, making him shudder, then burn his hands hot, make his clothes stick to his skin, building like slow pressure inside his chest, filling his arms with a throbbing, dull ache that demanded release through his palms.
It hurt so bad, but hurt so good, as the she-dragon's voice coaxed him each time the fleeting sensation of energy expulsion slipped back up his arms, unable to connect with the steady stream of heat pouring out of Cain and Damali's hands. His arms felt like the skin on them was splitting and opening. Zehiradangra's voice shushed him to be still, to channel it through his palms and to not let it splatter to evaporate into wasted energy within the atmosphere around him.
He was about to give up when he felt her tongue lick down his shoulder, glide over his elbow, and caress each digit on his tightly clenched fist.
Right there, she whispered, just like it's your lover. Be one with the energy, and let it flow into the staff.
"I don't know how," Carlos whispered out loud, feeling Cain's massive fist tighten hard enough to crush the bones in his hand. Damali's pulse beneath his palm was a distraction and his arm was now almost so laden with energy that it felt nearly impossible to keep it extended.
"Strike him," Cain murmured. "He is not that evolved."
Before Carlos could drop his arm from fatigue or process Cain's command, a blinding dragon strike scored his jugular and released the pent-up energy in waves of color throughout his system in hard, pulsing jags. His eyelids fluttered, bright flashes in every hue singed his senses. He couldn't breathe. His hand was on fire. His arm shook as the muscles within it contracted and released in spasmodic jerks. Cain pulled the brunt of the unharnessed ejection and fused it with a gold-green spiked jolt; Damali received and mellowed it, then sent it into the staff in a smooth, steady stream.
Unable to move, Carlos could mentally see the staff light up, glow golden, then become deep crimson, and then finally go burning white. The serpents opened their mouths and screamed, quickly slithering in
opposite directions, leaping off the staff and catching energy rays in their mouths with their fangs to pull it down with them, connecting it as one unbroken thread of shimmer, as they instantly reunited with the searing rod. Green flames tore down the staff in a dizzying spiral and slammed into Marlene's chest. Her body arched, her throat wound sealed, her lips tore apart as a shriek pushed its way between them.
"Drop the Caduceus!" Cain shouted. "Link hands. Lower the pyramid!" The threesome worked on reflex motor skills, quickly clasping hands, creating a wide, green-glowing pyramid between their bodies that hung midair like a translucent shield above Marlene. They lowered it with Cain's guidance to slowly sweep over the surface of Marlene's prone body from head to toe. Once the energy stopped sputtering, Cain slowly released their hands and sat back on his haunches, winded. Damali fell back on the ground with her legs sprawled, breathing hard and staring at Marlene.
Carlos fell forward on his hands and knees, panting and watching Marlene's skin begin to knit and her nose rise out of the twisted flesh of her face. Soon her eyes separated from the morass of melted, scarred skin. Her lashes reappeared, but were pure white. Then her eyebrows surfaced slowly, one hair at a time--snow white. Her charred skin slowly returned to its ebony beauty... but her face was so old, so wrinkled, like that of a crone. Carlos looked away.
Cain moved forward and spread his hands over Marlene's face and slowly pulled them away as her eyes opened... then he closed his when her irises were pure white.
"Damali," Cain whispered. "She's blind. Go into her mind." Cain wiped the sweat from his brow and whispered into Marlene's ear, but she didn't respond. "She's deaf." He stood and paced back and forth and then dropped down again beside her, watching Damali slowly move to Marlene and extend a trembling hand above her third eye.
"We must know whether or not she is brain dead. I am so sorry, dear one."
Damali closed her eyes, and placed her wet cheek on Marlene's forehead. Shuddering breaths repressed a sob as she stroked Marlene's hair.
"I love you so much, Marlene, come back whole."
A sob tore through Shabazz and put him on his feet. He walked away, deep into the brush. No Guardian followed him. Kamal put his fist to his forehead and walked away in the opposite direction with his eyes closed.
Damali continued to stroke Marlene's now all-white hair, and whispered gently. "Mom, don't die."
I have done all I have to do, you know all you need to know from me, Marlene replied in a serene voice from her mind. / won't be alone, Christine is with me.
"Don't you leave me, Marlene!" Damali shrieked, clasping Marlene to her br**sts.
You will not be alone, child. It is time.
Bitter sobs wracked Damali as Marlene's voice became weaker and began floating. She hugged Marlene up from the ground and began rocking with her mother-seer's body in her arms. "You have to be here for my babies! You have to be here when I act crazy! You have to be here--because I cannot breathe on this planet without you... Marlene!" Damali's voice dissolved into hiccupping, shrill bleats.
"Let her go, D," Rider said quietly. "Baby, she's gone."
"Give me the Caduceus!" Damali shouted, glaring at Cain as he stood and slowly shook his head.