The Magic Rain

Chapter Twenty-Two: Jo-Bri

They traveled in three cars. The site of the portal was near the highway, where the three wizards had attacked them – and killed Scott. Jo-Bri felt a surge of guilt but let it pass through him. He wasn’t beyond feeling the guilt, he was just beyond letting it rule him or inhibit his ability to deal with what had to be dealt with.

The site was uncomfortably near town. He wondered now if they should have called the National Guard or army, but it was too late for that now, and he couldn’t in good conscience ask the townsfolk to join the upcoming battle, because they were merely innocent bystanders already being violated by the control he was reluctantly exerting on them. He had decided to try to salvage the future by keeping their identities secret, confined only to the locals whose loyalty he had magically assured. He knew that unless they could keep the existence of their magical powers secret from the authorities, there would eventually be a backlash of fear that would prevent them from trying to save the Earth, not to mention his own world.

Jo-Bri thought of his own world and marveled at the fact that he had come so far from it in such a short time. It seemed so long ago now that he had stood in the hills watching Hodon and his army of soldiers and wizards destroy his family, his village and his entire life up to that point – except for Kawille, whom Hodon would murder soon afterwards.

Jo-Bri and the others emerged from their cars and stood by the side of the highway. They were soon joined by several squad cars and Jo-Bri felt Mel realize that her parents had done the job Jo-Bri had assigned to them: telling the townsfolk that the attack was coming. Because of Jo-Bri’s manipulation of their minds and memories, the townsfolk, including the police, were completely willing to listen to her parents’ advice in how to best protect themselves. That included the police coming to their side to add whatever help they could in the upcoming battle.

For a moment Jo-Bri hoped that the police would be able to shoot the wizards before they could attack them and the others with their powers. He instantly felt a rush of guilt and shame – it might be necessary to kill today, but to wish it to happen was wrong, no matter what the motives, even supposedly "good" ones. How could you have a "good" motive for killing someone? Jo-Bri knew you couldn’t. Ever. You didn’t ever kill someone because you had a good reason, you did it only because you were not yet strong enough as a spiritual being to know how to avoid the killing.

He thought of the story of the waves and ocean he had told the others, and he realized that though the crashing waves might not affect the ocean itself, he and his students/friends were still living at the level of the waves so that the violence felt all too real, and so did the consequences.

He sent them all a quick thought of love, and was gratified to feel them all decide to try to love Hodon and his wizards, no matter what violence Hodon and his henchmen intended to try to inflict on them.

If we love them enough, he felt Mel hope, and he mentally smiled at her and gave her a mental hug, one that he then immediately extended to the others. If we love them enough, Jo-Bri repeated Mel’s thought, without passing judgment on the thought or on any inability they might have to carry out that thought and the loving philosophy behind it.

The fear hit them like a wave of pain, and Jo-Bri realized that it was both – pain and fear. He nearly dropped to his knees. He heard several of the others moan, and felt their revulsion and near panic in his mind.

"It’s started," Jo-Bri said.

"How?" Mel asked, trying not to fight the pain, remembering what Jo-Bri had said to them: what you resist persists. "There’s no one here."

"Hodon is sending fear through the portal," Jo-Bri said, feeling the fear too, though he also felt the much greater strength he had to withstand it. He wasn’t fighting it with anger or determination, but rather with waves of love and acceptance. If we love them enough…

"We have to let them destroy themselves," he said out loud, and the others glanced at him. He realized he might be doing more harm than good – he wanted so much not to fail today, to find a way not to kill or be killed, but in doing so he might be hamstringing his own students and friends. He grabbed Mel and pulled her against him, giving her a long kiss, surprising her and everyone else. When he released her she was clearer, for he had imbued her with as much strength as he could afford without weakening himself too much.

"My soul mate," he said, and he saw a tear roll down her cheek.

There was nothing more he could say, so he turned to where he sensed the portal would open, and there was at that very moment a flash of light that blinded them momentarily.

Jo-Bri threw up a defensive shield, manipulating the rain of numbers to scramble and deflect any attack that might be launched on them while they were blinded. He felt Mike lend him support and Mel’s parents siphon power to him -- and it probably saved their lives, because he felt a huge surge of energy strike that shield. He barely hung onto it.

As their vision cleared, Jo-Bri saw several eight-foot tall men scattering in every direction just as he felt a wave of panic hit him – Hodon stood in front of the already fading portal. Jo-Bri had suspected that even magic strong enough to send someone from one world into another wouldn’t be able to sustain the portal for long, thankfully, or else Hodon would have brought his entire army along with him. As it was, Jo-Bri sensed perhaps half a dozen wizards. I’ll handle Hodon! He thought to the others.

The police officers were already on their knees, having dropped their guns, felled by the fear that Hodon was blasting them with.

Jo-Bri thought of his parents, of the slaughter at the village and realized he was trying to stop Hodon’s attack of fear on the one hand, but then allowing his own fear to sabotage him.

Then the pain hit harder.

Jo-Bri actually thought that there should be a different word for what hit him – pain was one thing, this… was so far beyond pain that it was indescribable. Somehow he maintained the energy shield, but he sensed that some of Hodon’s wizards were leaving the area and he couldn’t… manage… to fight… back… and the fear was growing as he became weaker, his shield wavering, and he felt the others’ fear rising as well, both because of Hodon and because they sensed him weakening.

Jo-Bri screamed "No!" and the sound was magnified by his own magic into a huge shout that somehow disrupted the attack and even the fear and pain at least long enough for him to tell Mike, Debbie, Maria, and Linda to go after the other wizards, even as he knew that he was asking far too much of these young wizards-in-training, but it had to be done.

Jo-Bri hesitated a micro second, then asked Mel’s mother to go with Mike and the girls, to provide additional energies for them. He wanted to send Mel’s father as well, but he knew he’d need some of that energy for himself if he were to have a chance against Hodon. He also second-guessed himself for a moment as to whether it was safer to send Mel with the others or to keep her by his side, and decided the latter.

Jo-Bri knew what he would have done if he’d been alone, but he wasn’t; he was protecting Mel, her father and the police officers who were now lying on the ground in fetal positions whimpering, nearing the verge of insanity from the fear that Hodon was projecting. If he’d been alone, he would have let down his shield and let Hodon destroy him, not because he wanted to commit suicide, but because it would have been the only way not to be controlled by Hodon’s fear.

Now Hodon, recovering from Jo-Bri’s shout, resumed his attack, sending waves of fear and pain. Jo-Bri was able to block most of those attacks, manipulating the rain of numbers, altering it by the microsecond, feeding partially off Mel’s father’s channeled energies while scrambling reality to try to deflect the attack, but Hodon was altering his attack by the microsecond as well, and it was like some ultra sophisticated chess game played on the level of high magic; every one of Jo-Bri’s moves countered by Hodon but at an inhuman speed, the numbers slashing down around him, flashing in and out of existence, creating and destroying patterns…

Jo-Bri felt his own parents inside him, lending him their energies and wisdom. It kept him in the battle, but Jo-Bri knew he would have to make a decision soon, that he couldn’t just be on the defensive; eventually Hodon would penetrate his defenses enough to disable him with his fear, and it would take only a momentary lapse for Hodon to them send a bolt of energy or to twist the numbers and the space they occupied into nothingness.

Jo-Bri, while using some of his energy to maintain his defensive spells, began hoarding some of the energies fed to him by his own parents and by Mel’s father. Then he felt an additional surge of power and looked down to see that Mel, who had been on her knees, was now climbing to her feet, looking determined, lending her power to Jo-Bri. He spared the micro bit of energy it took to send her a packet of love energy, which caused her to increase her own power to him, and he felt their bond strengthen even as Hodon’s attack strengthened.

Jo-Bri had known that Hodon was a powerful wizard – he would have to be to defeat his father -- but now he felt the full brunt of that power, and it was daunting.

Jo-Bri felt his shields waver slightly even as he felt his energies and the energy fed to him by Mel, her father, and Jo-Bri’s parents, increasing to the point at which he was ready. He sent Mel a brief thought describing what he was going to do and he felt her unconditional love in return.

Jo-Bri closed his eyes and did two things, one right after the other. His first act was to reach out and twist the rain of numbers around Hodon as hard as he could, randomly scrambling the numbers and the space those numbers occupied. Hodon had to respond, which disrupted his own attack on Jo-Bri and the others.

Jo-Bri then took every bit of energy he had, including the energy he had been using to defend himself and the others against Hodon, and redirected that energy at Hodon, in the form of pure love.

If someone had asked Jo-Bri to define that statement -- "in the form of pure love" -- he would have hesitated, trying to find the words to describe it to a non-wizard, and then smiled and said he was giving his energy to God… the God he saw in Hodon.

If we love him enough, Mel thought to him, and he felt the exhaustion in her, for she had given him everything she had and there was nothing left if this did not work.

The rain of numbers around Hodon went crazy. They swirled and slashed and blinked in and out and flashed from one pattern to another wildly, like a pinball machine gone insane and at a thousand times the speed and complexity.

Then… nothing. Hodon stood, as if stunned. Jo-Bri stood as well, Mel beside him, and he felt Mel’s father walk up beside them, and he sensed her father thinking that if this was the end, he was going to be beside his daughter and son. That last word took Jo-Bri by surprise, but he immediately accepted that token of love. He knew his father would approve of his returning that thought with "thank you father," to Mel’s father, and he realized the truth of it – Mel’s parents were his parents in this world.

Then Jo-Bri realized what had happened. The energy he had sent to Hodon’s "Godself" had paralyzed Hodon himself. But he could feel Hodon fighting his way "out" of the spell. Jo-Bri knew exactly what he had to do, and he quickly pulled an exhausted Mel to him, kissing her forehead and hugging her.

"What are you going to do?" she asked, sensing something was wrong.

Jo-Bri stuck his hand out to Mel’s father, who took it somberly, also sensing something was wrong but also sensing that Jo-Bri was going to handle it in the only way he could.

"I’ll be back," Jo-Bri said. "I don’t know how, but I will be back."

"Back?" Mel said, looking alarmed.

"You have to trust me now," Jo-Bri said, glancing at Hodon and feeling the wizard fighting his way closer to the "surface."

Jo-Bri sent as much love as he could to Mel, overwhelming her with it, then turned and walked quickly toward Hodon. As he did so he asked Mel’s father to give him whatever energy he could muster from around him, given that the battle had probably temporarily depleted his ability to suck it out of the atmosphere. Mel’s father immediately began channeling what he could.

Mel, sensing Jo-Bri’s need, even though she suspected that he was going to do something that was going to tear her life apart – again – added what little she could.

Jo-Bri raised his arms to the side, opening himself up to all the energy he could, from his parents inside him, from Mel and from her father, as well as his own ability to draw energy down from the air around him, and hoped it would be enough.

Opening a portal took an enormous amount of magic.

Hodon’s face began to change, to show emotion, and Jo-Bri recognized it: anger and hatred. The wizard was nearly back in control of himself.

If we can love him enough, Mel thought sadly to him, and Jo-Bri felt a pang that nearly derailed him from what he knew he had to do.

Jo-Bri stopped in front of Hodon and wrapped his arms around the much taller wizard, squeezing him with all his considerable might, as if trying to pull him inside of himself, to absorb him, and as he did that he used every ounce of energy he had, every ounce of energy being given to him, to swirl the rain of numbers into a shape that might be a portal. He wasn’t exactly sure how to do that, but he had to try. If he couldn’t then he would simply have to destroy himself and Hodon with him if he was going to prevent the wizard from defeating him, killing the others and, eventually, destroying Earth itself.

Then Jo-Bri felt Hodon speak to him mentally, and even though Hodon had not yet regained control of his vocal cords, Jo-Bri could feel the anger rising in the dark wizard and knew Hodon would shortly be able to attack him. Jo-Bri felt fear, but knew it was his own, not fear that Hodon had imposed on him – yet.

"You don’t understand," Hodon said telepathically, and Jo-Bri experienced the oddest feeling – he had obviously spoken telepathically before, but never to this man. And he had never even thought of this person as a man, but as a wizard or a monster of some kind… but here was this wizard-monster speaking to him.

"What don’t I understand?" Jo-Bri said, telepathically because it would have taken too much effort for him to speak physically. He continued squeezing Hodon to him, in the foolish assumption that if he could contain him physically that he could somehow do so magically as well.

"That your world hangs in the balance," Hodon said, speaking the word, and a bolt of fear shot through Jo-Bri as he realized that Hodon had regained that much of his physical body.

Then Jo-Bri realized the really important thing about Hodon speaking to him – he had spoken to him in English. Even more telling, Hodon had used the term "your world" instead of "our world."

"You’re human," Jo-Bri said in English back to Hodon.

"Yes, and look what one human has done to your world," Hodon replied. "Imagine what all the evil of my world will do to your world," Hodon said, "what it’s already doing. Destroy me and you destroy your own world."

Even as Jo-Bri’s mind was reeling from the realization of who and what Hodon was, he was also realizing what he needed to do.

"Are these people worth the destruction of your world?" Hodon asked. "Is she worth the destruction of your own people?"

Jo-Bri didn’t bother to answer. He had one chance to succeed in what he knew he had to do. Mel and her father were still channeling energy to him, even though it was a fraction of what it had been before the battle. He tilted his head back and screamed, vocally channeling all of his energy, all of his will into one spell, one manipulation of the rain of numbers, of the local reality, even as he felt Hodon gather his own strength for a renewed attack.

Jo-Bri sent a quick thought to Mel and her father, then…