A Mother's Love

May was able to feel Peter weakening mentally and physically. The constant battering on the

protective field around him was taking its toll. With every blast of energy dealt out by James the field’s strength was getting weaker and weaker. Peter could feel the blasts electrify his body and he was in great pain but he kept his focus and maintained the field as best he could. May screamed out in her mind for the blue skinned stranger to send Peter’s brother to end the battle and banish James out of this reality. Just as she finished the thought there came twelve popping sounds and rushes of air as the Lost Boys arrived. They instantly focused and connected to Peter mentally and May felt Peter’s strength and stamina increase.

Peter felt his brother focusing on the tasked in his mind as instructed by the stranger. He could see the containment field and the opening to the dimensional portal. He could feel the pushing force needed to move James physically into the portal. The blue skinned stranger’s voice filled Peter’s head and said “Peter remember you must created a mental link between you and James before we can proceed with the banishment.” Peter replied that he remembered and started to concentrate on making the link occur. Peter’s first attempt to make the link frightened him. What he found there was an overwhelming menagerie of emotions filled with hate, anger and abandonment. Feelings so bitter and dark, that Peter broke the connection. He feared that he might lose himself in their depths. The stranger’s voice once again filled Peter’s mind and he told Peter that he was not alone. He told him that May was there with him since the beginning and her love would protect him for being swallowed up by James’s bitter emotions. Peter heard his mother’s voice say softly in his mind “We can do this together my son. Remember nothing can destroy the love that binds a mother and her child. From this love we will gather the strength to overcome the dark reaches of James’s mind. Try again to create the link and know this time I am there.”

Peter once again reached out mentally and made contact with James’s mind. The same emotions that he felt before in James mind filled his very being but this time he let them engulfed him. A vortex of swirling images and sounds that were James’s memories filled Peter’s inner mind. He felt the hate that the woman who bore James had for the unborn child. When James tried to communicate with her from the womb she denied it. She was lost in a stupor of drug abuse and thought the drugs were causing the tiny voice in her head. The hate and the want that she felt were the only things she passed on to James. Never once in James’s memories did she show the love of a mother for her child to him. Peter thought to himself how lucky he had been to have been loved by his mothers, Fawn and May. Because of their love he not only survived but had been spared the ordeal that the Lost Boys and James had endured. He wanted to share this understanding of love with James in hope that it would lead him down a different path.

James’s voiced filled Peter’s mind and it screamed “Get out of my mind and leave my memories alone.

I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. I don’t need the understanding that you wish to share with me. I only need the hatred that has buried itself in my heart to survive. I will use the strength that this hatred gives me to destroy you.” Peter responded to James “Our brothers are here with us now. They are in back of me helping me to overcome your attacks. I have shared this thing you reject with them and it has changed their understanding of what life is.” With that said Peter filled James’s mind with loving memories of his mother’s Fawn and May. He shared the emotions that he felt for both these women and other people in his life. He shared the father figures that Parker and Angie had become to him and how they mentored him to grow into a man of good ethical morals. He let James see the world and all its wonder through his eyes and understanding of it. Peter abandoned all his mental defenses and let his identity be absorbed by James.

The physical struggle between the two boys in the real world came to an abrupt stop. Peter and James just stood in the street in silent concentration. Their minds intermingled as they shared all of themselves with each other. Images flashed through James’s mind of Peter’s memories. He felt and knew the love that Fawn had given Peter while he was still within her womb. Understood the sacrifice she made to save Peter from the horrid life he and his brothers had led. An overwhelming emotion of warmth filled James very soul as he experienced the love that May had given Peter over the years. He perceived the thankfulness that May herself felt for being blessed with Peter as her child and the tiny bit of Fawn’s spirit that Peter had passed on to her.

James also felt the loneliness that Peter had lived with. The constant struggle that Peter endured to hide his abilities from the world and the burden it place on him.

James then found a feeling that lied in the dark hidden reaches of Peter’s mind. It was hatred and it was against Doctor Scull and the Agency. It wasn’t the type of hatred that James harbored in his mind, but it was hatred just the same. James started to feed on this hatred and it made him stronger. All his life James had thrived on hatred to keep him going and give him hope that someday he would achieve the revenge he sought. He had achieved his revenge when he killed Scull and one of the Agency members. The only hatred that James could feed on now was the hatred for the brother he was battling. James broke free of the images and memories of love and family fed to him by Peter. He wanted no part of it all he wanted was the right to hate and destroy whatever he wanted. This was the only thing in life that made him feel alive. It was the light that led him to face another day in a world he saw as inferior to himself. James was determined to bring his adversary to his knees. He wanted to watch him slowly die an agonizing death of tremendous pain.

Peter sensed what James was thinking. He knew that no matter what he shared of himself with James it wouldn’t change the path that James had taken. Peter heard the voice of the blue skinned ally in his thoughts and it said “Peter you have seen what I had already known. The dark evil in James cannot be changed. It has taken root deep within his mind and ego and no amount of compassion can uproot it. Your attempt to turn him from the dark evil may have been futile but it shows that you are of the light and not the darkness. The goodness in you would not allow you to condemn your brother without first trying to redeem him to the light of goodness and hope. I felt the light of goodness in you but I had to be sure that it was there.

The mental contact with James was a test. I had to make sure that compassion came before condemnation in your moral concepts. You showed greater compassion than I thought your species was capable of an admirable trait my son. It is time to start the process of banishment. You have the knowledge and power to do so. It’s all up to you now Peter.”