Hello Everyone! Ok, this is a new story for me, and the second on the Nifty Archives. My other story is Shining Star; it's a BSB and fan scenario. This is even more of a fantasy one. Thanks to the people who said that they loved my other story. I love praise, to heap more on me e- mail me - shiningstar@oceanfree.net . That's it for now. Let me know what you think!
This story is complete fiction! I know, you never would have guessed by yourselves but I have to tell you so there you go. I don't know Nsync, nor do I know of anyone who wields the sort of power that is an integral part of this story. Please don't try this at home.
If you're too young for what's legal then I don't think that you should be reading this. But I personally don't think that it's going to scar you for life.
I was walking home from work. Not an unusual event, it happens a couple of times a week, but the streetlights weren't working. Fuses must have blown. But it was eerie. Listening to the sound of your footsteps, working out where you are from memory. Sure there was light coming from houses, front windows and porch lights but there were no cars, no strong lights to dispel the shadows that crept over everything.
"Do you know who you are?" Asked a silky yet masculine voice at my ear. I jumped. I hadn't heard him catch up to me. Come to think of it I hadn't heard him at all, and we were walking on gravel.
"Do you?" His tone had changed. I could feel the power emanating from it now. The fact that he was used to having questions answered and orders obeyed. Yet something drew me to it, compelling me to answer. He deserved that much, I thought, but I didn't know why.
"I. I don't think that I know you." I stammered. I quickened my pace, trying to get home that little bit faster. My house was only another 10 minutes walk away, and I wanted to get there soon.
"Don't be so sure." He said, amusedly.
"What do you want? I've got nothing that you could want, I swear." A tremor entered my voice. I usually wasn't afraid to defend myself. But this wasn't a voice that you wanted to hear on a dark street late at night.
"You're very wrong, you know. You have everything that I want." He continued, thinking out loud. "The signs are all in place. The stars have aligned." He stopped talking, and I got the feeling that he was staring at me. "But you're not more then a boy. It can't be right. Things are moving too fast." He was unsure of himself. I don't think that's happened in the last thousand years or so. Where had that come from? I wondered. It had just appeared. A thought that didn't belong, hmmm. He was silent for the next couple of minutes, not making a noise, not a rustle of a coat nor the swish of a pair of trousers. I had almost convinced myself that he had gone, but a little voice was telling me that he was still there.
"You have the sight, don't you?" It was a statement, not a question. The confidence in his voice had returned.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Please, leave me alone." I pleaded. I was almost at home and I didn't want to bring some sort of psycho into my home. Not with my mother and my sister there.
"Oh, I think that we'll be seeing a lot more of each other alright." He laughed. It wasn't a pleasant sound.
"Just leave me alone." I said again.
"Don't you dare give me orders." Grabbing my arm he twisted me so that I was facing him. Suddenly, his eyes glowed yellow. I was frozen in place by his gaze and, try as I might; I couldn't get out of it. The light was growing brighter until it lit up the street for hundreds of feet. "Just because you're being protected, don't think that I can't get you. I've lived for thousands of years, and it wasn't to take cheek from you." He growled. "I promise you that you'll regret the words you've spoken here tonight." With that, the fierce, burning light piercing into me dimmed again and he was gone. I blinked and rubbed my eyes to my to rid myself of the after effect of the light and, by the time I could see again the streetlights were back on and I all I could remember of the walk home was that I had stepped in some chewing gum.
"Mum! I'm home!" I shouted when I closed the door.
"Get your dinner and come in here, there's a good film on." She shouted back from the sitting room. I went into the kitchen to get it. Saw what it was and was instantly suspicious. It was my favourite meal, and was only made when Mum wanted something. After a spell in the microwave it was finished and I put it on a tray sat down beside my mother on the sofa. After ten minutes of eating I put the tray down on the ground and thanked her.
"Tom." She said.
"What?" I said guardedly. It was definite; she was up to something.
"Well." I cut her off.
"I know that you want something. Just ask it."
"Alright, alright! That concert of your sisters is coming up, and you know that she has to have someone go with her, so I was hoping that you'd do it."
"That's all you had to say Mum, you should know that I would want to go to it. After all, Nsync is every gay guys dream, right?" I joked.
"But you never listen to them, you all into rock, at least, that's all I ever hear from your bedroom."
"That's because I wait until you've gone out to really crank up the volume!"
"Whatever." She said dismissively. "The important thing is that you're going."
"What are the tickets like?" I asked.
"You don't expect me to know do you? Anyway, I bought them so long ago that I didn't even remember that the concert was on until Amy reminded me."
"Amy? She's coming? You could have said!"
"I know, I know. But I promised your sister that she could bring one friend along, and she choose Amy. Nothing that I can do about it."
As it turned out, the tickets were quite reasonable. And now, looking around, I could see that they were a lot better then where some people were sitting. Can they even see the stage? I asked myself, let alone the performers? Amy, little Miss Sugar Bomb herself, interrupted my thoughts.
"Ohmygod ohmygod! We are actually at a Nsync concert! I can't believe it, oh wow! Am I asleep? Ow! (She pinched herself) Nope, I'm not." I groaned. Another hour of this? And that was until they came on stage, and then. it was too painful to think about.
"Ok people, we are going to take a five-minute break, but, to keep you from getting bored. here are the Nuclear puppies!" Screamed Lance from the stage. He had to do so to be heard over his thousands of adoring fans.
Backstage -
"Ok, what's this about?" Asked JC.
"Don't you feel it? I can feel something out there, in the crowd."
"Something? You don't want to be anymore specific do you?" Said Justin, laughing.
"Stop laughing! This isn't funny! It's human power, ok? I just can't get closer then that."
"You can't get closer? It must be powerful then." Said Chris. Lance's power allowed him to see most that was hidden to others, including thoughts, auras (although the rest of the group were getting better at that.) and power centres.
"He's right." Murmured Joey. "I feel it too. It's weak, I didn't want to say anything." Lance smiled at his lover, glad that someone was ready to support him. It was well known that by sharing a bed and intimacy you also placed some of your power in your partner. Especially if you did it as much as they did.
"Okay then, say there is black out there. What are we going to do about it?" Asked Justin.
"I didn't say it was black. You're jumping to conclusions again." Replied Lance.
"If it was white then we'd all be able to feel them this close. And even if we couldn't, why would they want to hide from us?"
"I didn't say they were that either. I think." Lance paused for breath. "I think they're an undecided." His statement raised a clamour from the others in the room.
"An undecided?! These days? Come on Lance! Think about what you're saying!" Exclaimed Justin. "There hasn't been a real undecided in what, 400 years?"
"452 years, actually." Said JC, who had been reading up on the Lore lately.
"Whatever. The point is the same. I don't think that you're receiving properly Lance, that all."
"We've supported you when you said crazy things in the past, Justin, like the vampires who were walking in sunlight. Remember?" Said Chris.
Justin winced at the memory. "But I was wrong. They were just Goths."
"I know what I feel, and it is real power. It's getting stronger every minute that we stand here and argue!"
"I say we go with Lance. We've got nothing to lose. The question is - what do we do about it?" Said Joey, backing Lance up again.
"Ok, say they are an undecided. Don't you think that we should try to help to make a choice?" Asked JC.
"But how do we do that? If Lance can't even find the person then what hope do we have of talking to them?"
Lance concentrated and then said - "Him."
"What?"
"Him. Not they."
"You can read his mind? I thought that you said that you couldn't."
Lance's voice drifted up from the trance that he was in "I've been working on something new. I can 'project' myself into someone else, in this case, someone near to him and look through their eyes."
"So you know where he is then?" Asked Joey, who was convinced that Lance was right. Lance said that the person, well - man, was getting more powerful and he was becoming more obvious to Joey. Lance grunted.
"Hang on, he's talking to a little girl. I think she's there with him." A couple of moments went by in silence as Lance's mind drifted off way from his body." He opened his eyes and smiled.
"Block A, Row 24, Seat number 17. I read her mind."
Since the boys had slowed down time for the duration of the conversation they still had a minute and a half until they had to go back on stage.
"Ok, so we know where he is. What do we do now?"
"Offer them backstage passes! If I know the girls that are with him, and I do, then he won't be able to leave here without coming backstage." Said Lance, who, while 'riding' the mind of Amy, had taken the liberty of checking up on a few facts about her. He knew what she was like all right!
"Yeah, we'll make it a rigged competition!"
With that agreed the boys raced back to their adoring fans, revelling in the adoration that radiated from their faces. At an agreed time in the performance they asked for silence.
"Quiet everybody! Now, I hope you all kept your tickets, because you're going to need them. We're gonna give backstage passes to some lucky fans!" JC waited for the screams to die down. "Lance here is going to think of a seat number, and, anyone who is with the person whose seat that is can come backstage with us after the show!" The concert hall exploded with noise as fans realised what he was saying. Management was going crazy in the wings because this had not been discussed with them. "Drum roll please! Lance!"
"Block A!" Screams erupted in Block A.
"Row 24!" Now a single line of people screamed loader then the rest of the audience, and Amy in particular.
"Seat. Number." Lance was really playing this.
"17!" I heard. Amy looked up at me in shining adoration, as if I was her saviour, her saint.
"That's you!" She squealed. "Ohmygodi'mgonnameetnsync!" She was more hyper then I had ever seen her in her life, and I had seen her hyperactive a lot.
"At the end of the concert go to the backstage entrance over there." Lance pointed. "And make sure to bring your ticket to show your seat number!" Lance was going to make sure that he was going to get in anyway, but he had to say it to make it look genuine.
Amy stayed on her toes for the rest of the concert, and my sister was hardly any better. The two of them got worse and worse until finally, Nsync made their final departure from the stage. I have to admit there were a fair few butterflies in my stomach as well.
We made our way to the backstage entrance, struggling through the crowd that was flowing the other way and the people who realised that we had won the little competition and were begging to be taken backstage with us. I showed my ticket to the guard at the door and he asked who was with me. I pointed to Amy and my sister, and, after nodding gruffly handed us the backstage passes that were waiting for us and gave us directions to the dressing rooms. Predictably the two girls were going insane when they realised that they were doing more then the normal meet and greet. We were told by the guard at the dressing room to go in and wait for Nsync.
"We're actually their dressing room! Look! I bet this is Justin's corner!" They both tried to get over to the piles of clothing that were in one of the corners.
I grabbed them by the T-shirts that they were wearing. "Oh no you don't! I don't want them to come back and see you going through their stuff. How would you feel if you went home and someone was going through you bedroom?" I asked rhetorically. "We'll just sit on the sofa and wait for them." To make sure that they would comply I gave them no choice and just dragged them over to the sofa.
After a couple of minutes more of waiting the door opened to reveal a hand coming around it, and then JC followed. He gave the girls one glance and they both fainted. They hadn't even seemed to notice his entrance, which puzzled me. I mean, I thought that they might faint, I had heard of it happening before and Amy was so keyed up. I shook my head in disapproval and then moved them to make sure that they wouldn't fall off the sofa if they moved around. By the time I was finished all the members of Nsync were in the room. I got up to greet them.
"Hi. I'm Tom. And the two who have swooned are Amy and Ashley." JC extended his hand to me and I took it. He had a firm grip but it was odd. it was like there was an electric current running through his hand to me.
"Hi. I'm JC, and these are Lance, Justin, Chris and Joey." As he spoke I moved around the room, greeting the others.
"So, you won our little 'competition' then. Guess those two must have been excited!" Said Justin.
"Yeah, but you'd think that they'd stay conscious to see you then, wouldn't you?" I joked.
"Well, actually, they're like that for a reason." Said Lance. "What do you think now Guys?" The others might not have had the skill that Lance had for seeing things far away, but the handshakes were enough to tell them everything that they needed to know.
"I reckon you were right James. Sorry for doubting you." Said Justin, and the others agreed. Lance just looked smug.
"What are you talking about? And what you do you mean, they're like that for a reason?" I asked. They were confusing me with what they were saying.
"Well you see Tom," started JC, since he was the authority on the lore and the 'alternative' history of the world. "The world is not how you think. There are people in it with incredible powers and abilities, to do things that science dictates as impossible."
"What the fuck are you guys on? Are you playing with me or what?" I got up. I wanted to wake up the girls and leave. These guys were messed up.
"Look Tom, look at me." Said Justin. I looked over at him and a second skin of fiery red burst out all over him. Startled, I sat back down with a thump and my jaw hanging.
"What the fuck is going on here? Are you ok Justin?" I asked. It looked like he was on fire so needless to say, I was a little concerned for him. Justin grinned and the 'fire' around him disappeared with an audible 'whoosh'.
"I'm fine. But that's was JC is talking about, so I think that you should listen to him."
"Thanks J. Now then, as I was saying, there are people, including us, who have the power to do things like what J just did and more."
"But what's this got to do with me? Why are you telling me all this?"
"Because Tom, you have this power as well, but you don't know it yet because you haven't been taught how to release it or how to harness it." He paused. "But there are different types of power. White and Black, Good and Evil. Most people are born into one or the other and are taught to use that power accordingly. But even inside of those two groups there are different levels of power and different abilities. But, every so often there are people who don't care about their powers or don't know about them, so that a person with white magic could have a child with a person who has black magic. The child is then called an 'undecided' because they can choose which type of power they want to wield, but they generally make for weak mages. But every so often one is born, a child with power whose family has no history of magic at all and they are the true undecided. You are one of these. You have the choice between white magic and black magic." This talk about magic and deciding really seemed familiar to me. "There is a difference in the power, with black magic you become powerful very quickly and with white magic everyday is a struggle, every extra bit of power is fought for and is earned. Over time, this means that white magic is more powerful then black. But there have always been more people with black magic. When everyone with power was an undecided more people choose the black arts because it was easier. That's human nature for you." JC finished his speech and looked expectantly at me.
"So." I said slowly, trying to digest everything that he was saying to me. "You're saying that I'm one of these 'undecided' people are you?"
"That's right. My power allowed me to see that in you when you were in the audience. But you've heard some of this before, haven't you?" Asked Lance.
"I. I think so, but I can't remember where."
"Do you mind if we take a look? Just see what's going on in your mind. We'll only look at relevant stuff!" Asked JC.
"Sure."
"Right, Lance, help me here will you?" Lance came closer to JC and held his hand. JC then put his free hand onto my head. I felt the same tingle that I did earlier, but it was stronger now.
"Wait a sec Josh! Look at that!" Exclaimed Lance.
"I see it James. It looks like someone hid the memories."
"And replaced them as well!" Said Lance, the awe in his voice evident. I shuddered, and then remembered what had happened a couple of nights ago.
"Drayn." Said JC. "He got to you? He knows that you exist? Damn."
"You met Drayn? And survived?" Justin was incredulous. "How?"
"What did he mean? That I was being protected?"
"The original white mages, when their deaths were near they cast a powerful spell and scattered themselves into the air. When we really need them we can call upon them and they will lend us some of their power." Replied JC. "But still, if they're getting involved then this is serious. You really must have some power. And I guess it's up to us to show you how to use it."
There you go then. Let me know what you think. shiningstar@oceanfree.net
Tim