Part XII - 2: The Price of One's Soul

I had really done it that time. My head hurt in ways I had never knew it could. And the fact that I couldn't move a muscle didn't make me feel too good about my condition. Not that I was complaining, mind you. I was alive, and apparently rescued.

Actually, I could move a few muscles, but moments after I had opened my eyes, I had to let them shut again because of the considerable strain I was feeling from the simple act of holding them open.

I drifted in and out of sleep, once in a while finding a doctor or nurse in the room checking my vital signs and doing other medical things. Oh, and this older nurse gave me a sponge bath. That was... different. But I didn't attempt to communicate anything to them. A few of them noticed I was conscious and would say a few words, but I didn't have it in me to try and answer. Shit, I was doing good just to keep my eyes open long enough for them to notice. Several times I drifted back off to sleep while they were in mid sentence.

I think about five days passed before I discovered my mom in the room talking to the doctor. It could have been five weeks or five hours as much as I seemed to fade in and out of sleep, but five days should be about right. I don't think I would have risked feeling the pain I felt for anyone else but her. I passed out when I tried to touch her mind to let her know I was there.

When I awoke, she was right there beside me holding my hand. I managed to squeeze my hand like four other people had tried to get me to do, and mom gave it a kiss in response.

Over the next week, my mom and dad separately came to see me every day, always trying to hide their exhaustion and stress. I had no clue why they were so strung out now that Steven's mob was obviously no longer a threat. Mom especially seemed to be more worried every time I saw her, and that started to make me worry too.

It really sucks when you don't know what you're worrying about. It becomes almost habit to worry about every little thing that crosses your mind. I imagined I was a terminal case and would get worse until I died. I conjured up the image of myself in that bed as an old man, having lived my life an invalid. I eventually wondered if I really was free. Could my mom and dad have been taken over and were only pretending to be their normal selves until I was strong enough to be taken over too?

Nope. Two weeks after I had come out of my coma, my condition had improved enough that my mom risked moving me to a room with two beds, and then filled the other with a zombie-like Joey.

That completely erased any feelings that my mom and dad had been taken over. And once Joey was hooked up to similar life support equipment that I was on, my mom had him initiate a share link with me.

I managed to do what I had to do to let it form, then felt a wave of energy pass through my head that is indescribable. I felt my mind healing at an unbelievable rate, and just as the healing started to top out, five people walked in and laid down on the floor. My mom directed Joey to include those 'volunteers' in the share link, giving my healing rate another boost with each person added.

Within an hour, I was able to talk, and after three more I felt like my old self again. I was completely astonished by my mother having taken control of nearly forty different people to use in regenerating me. All those people had taken on some of the damage my stroke had caused. At least that was what the doctors were calling it. I'm still not sure if that was what it was.

My mom had made it clear I would have to wait until we left the hospital for me to ask the thousand and one questions I had. I was dying all over again from curiosity after my mom received a telephone call from my dad and she hurried the checkout procedure with her powers.

Finally, after climbing into the limo and wearily sitting down in her seat, my mom said, "Okay, Timmy. You can start asking now."

I had so many questions, I didn't know where to start. But then as the zombie like Joey began undoing her pants and started eating my mom out in front of my eyes, I easily made a decision of which question to ask first.

"What the hell is going on with you? I've never seen you be so free with your powers before. What happened to using them only in life and death situations?"

"That's all over know. As soon as we found you and Joey had been kidnapped, Charles managed to trick me into lowering my mental shield and took those commands out. He did the right thing, otherwise we would have never gotten you back. Joey, not so fast, sweetie. I only need to be relaxed. That's better."

"How _did_ you get me back?"

"After Joey took Suzi away, your father went to the Cabal and asked for their help. They said no, but your father... "

"Wait. Who? The Cable?"

"No, honey. The Cabal. They're a... I was going to say organization, but from the way they are acting now... It's a membership of telepaths who ensure the mutes don't learn about us and start a witch hunt. They were the ones who captured me and gave me to your father, and then made me unable to use my powers when they forced him to let me go.

"When we saw how they had brainwashed Joey, your father went to Cabal, only to be told it was our problem. Unless Steven' family attempted to take over government officials, they would be considered just another family of a telepath building their harem. It apparently isn't against the rules to take over other telepaths, just usually very stupid to try with Cabal members because most have formed allies with a few others. It is against the rules to start a war against another telepath, but because only one person died, and that had been in a car accident, we couldn't claim that either.

"But your father, being the business man he is, tried to make a deal with them... And finally he found something to offer them in exchange for their help."

She stopped there a moment, and I could see she was having a great deal of trouble with what she was about to tell me. But what disturbed me even more than her troubled face was the way she had started to slowly gyrate her crotch against Joey's busy face. She was using his mouth like a toy or a device, just like my father had done many times in front of me with his female slaves.

"Mom, let me look in your head so I can see what dad did to you," I said looking in her eyes.

"Oh, honey. He didn't do anything but what I said he did. Joey, stop. I'm sorry Timmy. I guess I have let some of my old ways come back to me. But your father and I have been under a lot of stress lately, and not just because our son was in the hospital.

"You do understand we couldn't do it by ourselves. Even with the two of us, we couldn't take on the army of tranquilizing gunmen they had. Oh, I forgot to tell you about our insider. You see, after Suzi was taken and before we went to the Cabal, your father suddenly remembered who Penny was."

"Penny? What do you mean _who_ she was?"

"Well, I made the comment about how I couldn't believe I had allowed her in our home last summer. Your father asked why, and I reminded him about your party for your summer camp friends, and also about how much trouble he had gotten in when he had made her his slave at the camp.

"Well, as soon as I said that, he ran out of the room and called his personal assistant, Winton. Would you believe that he had Penny's location the whole time?"

"WHAT!"

"Your father is a very smart man, if a bit forgetful. Every girl he makes his slave calls in their location without knowing they are doing it every other month just in case he wanted them again. Through Penny, we found out about Joey's brainwashing, your condition, the security of their installations, everything we needed to know. We even made her insist on giving you medical treatment after Joey's beatings.

"And that's why we knew we couldn't do it alone. Oh, Timmy. I hated agreeing to it, but we knew Joey was on his way for me, and we wouldn't have a better chance to save you before they used that horrible drug on you. The members who helped us wouldn't have done it without some sort of payment, and they have no interest in money."

"What did you agree to! TELL ME!"

She sighed, placed her hands on my shoulders, then looked in my eyes and said "Anyone that Steven's family had enslaved would be divided up equally between the members who assisted us. Apart from Suzi, Joey, and Joey's parents... I'm sorry honey. But they are all... "

"NO!! NO! NO! NO! You couldn't have! NO!!" I cried at the top of my lungs.

"I know! I'm sorry! But we couldn't let them use that drug on you! We HAD to sacrifice the others to get you back! Don't you see that? There was no other way."

"Yes there was! You should have let me die!" I sobbed. "I'd rather be dead than have all those people... NO! We CAN'T LET THEM HAVE THEM!"

"Timothy Jasper Brandton, LISTEN to me!" my mother said suddenly very sternly. In fact, I was shocked by her use of all three of my names. She hadn't said all of them like that since the time I peed on the living room rug when I was eight.

"Your father and I have been working night and day ever since they finished rounding up all of Steven's personnel, trying to keep order and make sure only those who had been drugged into being slaves would be given away. We're exhausted. Steven's family has over a two hundred people under their control, and almost that many more who are insane. Some of them can be restored to normal, but most of them can't be. And that includes Suzi, Joey, and his parents."

"What?! Why do you say that? The twins swore they could undo the drug's effects on Michael. How do you know they can't do the same for Joey, Suzi and the rest?"

"Because we've already tried with Joey. The twins have been trying every day since we took over. And the one person who knows more about what the twins can do than the twins themselves said it wouldn't work. Gladius bred and raised the twins and many others like them. If he says they can't do it, they can't."

"But... Wait. Is he a member?"

"Yes, but before you go accusing him of lying just to get his hands on some fresh livestock, Gladius has declined his share of the slaves. He helped us because he wants you and Joey to go with him for a couple of days after all this is over so he can assess your abilities, then depending on that have you give him a supply of your sperm for research."

"Sperm? You mean I have to let him use my stuff to make new and improved sex slaves? No thanks. No kid of mine will be sold as merchandise."

"Tim, you have no choice. It is part of the price for freeing you. In fact, if it hadn't been for him, you wouldn't be here right now."

"Why? What did he do? No wait. First tell me how you saved me when you were supposed to be defenseless."

She sighed, then said "We programmed Penny to unconsciously give me the wrong injection. Instead of blocking my telepathy, she had given me the antidote to it. The moment they woke me up, I sent your father the message that I was awake. Most of the Cabal began taking over the complex while the rest of them helped me to break through Joey's shield. You collapsed very nearly the exact moment we had seized his mind, and if it hadn't been for Gladius, you would have never made it to the hospital. I'm still not sure how he kept you alive."

I sat quietly for a few minutes absorbing all this, and my mind wandered to the events before my capture.

"Did you find Jerry and Dana?" I asked.

"Yes, Dear. When you didn't come home for dinner and I couldn't feel you anywhere, I called your father and he told me you had left to do Suzi's and Joey's parents. After talking to Suzi and not getting an answer at Joey's, both your father and I suspected what happened, and we found the two still asleep in the bedroom.

"Jerry's starting to remember how to speak, and Dana has been resisting him when he wants to have sex. We are pretty sure they will more or less return to normal in time. Apparently they hadn't been given the drug long enough for the effects to be permanent."

"That's good. OH! What about Mick, Scooter, and the rest? They were never drugged, and... "

"They are all back with their parents and they don't remember a thing. Tim, why do you keep looking at Joey like that?"

"He still hates me. Whenever he looks at me, I can feel the hate and anger... " I said with a slight tremor. I turned away from Joey's cold empty stare, and looked out the window. "Where are we, anyway?" I said as I gazed upon the jungle like vines covering the trees along the road. "And where are we going?"

"We're on our way to the facility you were kept in, and that's where most of Steven's enslaved people are being held. It's only one of three estates in the middle of nowhere Mississippi," she said, sounding very tired.

I suddenly felt fairly tired myself. I still had questions, but from the way my mom was looking, I decided we both could use a nap. So I got up and struggled to get the bed out. I couldn't believe how weak I was. My mom had to have Joey help me, then was humiliated even more when I couldn't even get my socks off without Joey's assistance.

It was good to get those itchy clothes off though. And when my mom got on the bed after stripping her clothes off, I felt comforted in a way I hadn't felt for a long time. I was caught off guard a moment when my mom started to kiss my bare shoulder and neck, and for a moment felt concerned she was starting to come on to me. But then she sighed happily and held me like she always does, and I realized she had kissed me like that back when I was smaller, so let it go as something innocent.

But my concern for my mother's new attitude came right back to me when I was awoken by the sounds of her heavy breathing and a pair of slurpy sucking sounds I knew very well.

That wasn't the first time I had seen Joey and my mom sixty nining, and deep down I knew that the real Joey wouldn't mind her using him like that. It was fact she was using him at all, though, that made me command my hardon to go down. But as I was accessing Joey's mind, I realized Joey's zombie state had been considerably altered to allow him some freedom in what he did. He had in fact been the one who had started it, not my mother.

I looked at the clock on the limo cabin's stereo and saw we had been asleep for almost an hour. Outside the window was the same sight of trees struggling to survive a sea of vines which had covered them from their trunks to their treetops. I sympathized with the poor trees, feeling a similar weight clinging on me. So many people's chances of getting their freewill restored may have been sacrificed for mine.

But even though I intended to try everything I could to stop that from happening, I couldn't help but see things had worked out the only way they could have under the circumstances. I felt I had been just as much a victim as any of them, and I was simply the lucky one who had escaped the others' fate.

In other words, I shrugged off any feelings of being responsible for their condition, and for the most part I was entirely correct for feeling that way. Steven's family had been using different methods of brainwashing on people long before they ever knew of me. And because of my involvement, they had been stopped from continuing their horrible deeds.

It's funny how you can look at something someone else does and damn them for it, even though your own parents were guilty of doing the same thing. Even I had altered a few people without their permission, but I was arrogant enough to believe it was in their best interests, and never felt that I had done something wrong.

I tried my best to ignore their struggles to pleasure each other, finding myself very uncomfortable even looking at Joey after what he had been through and later what he had done. I was thinking about if we truly couldn't undo the drug's affects, perhaps I would be better off trading Joey for someone less painful to have around.

As I had told my mother, even under the tight control she had over Joseph's mind and personality, I could still feel the anger and hatred within him. Like a beam of coldness would suddenly envelope my body whenever his eyes fell on my face, sometimes making me shudder, or more often just make me shiver.

But I knew if I ever gave him away like that, I would never forgive myself. I would rather endure a lifetime of coldness than let him or Suzi become someone's plaything. And just from the way my mother was acting after her lovely moaning orgasm, I knew that was exactly what every able bodied person would become that I wasn't able to protect.

And strangely enough, my concern seemed to shift to what would happen to Penny and David. It wasn't until I noticed the trees had less and less vines on them before I realized why I had focused on their fate. I had made a promise to do whatever I could to help them, a promise to someone I felt I had to keep.

My mother called me back to the bed, then told me to lay down and close my eyes. I felt Joey's coldness on me as my mom began rubbing my chest, and after a minute or two of withstanding his gaze, I started to feel her caresses a bit more, and soon wasn't feeling discomforted by Joey's cold stare at all.

I was just starting to slip into the dreamy state of being half asleep as my mother kissed my cheek several times. I was so warm and content that I didn't even think about how her kisses were getting longer and lower. I was enjoying her touches and kisses, never once thinking there could be anything sexual about them. I trusted my mother's integrity more than my own, mostly because she had been the one who had given me my ideas of what was right and wrong.

So when I suddenly felt her high state of arousal just before she groped the hardon I hadn't realized I had, I suddenly felt scared of my mother, the woman I had trusted my entire life.

I cringed away from her touch as I whimpered, "No, please?" and instantly saw her transform back into the woman I knew.

"I'm sorry baby... I don't know what I was... Oh honey," she said seeing me shaking all over.

"Don't EVER do that again!" I said with a surge of anger and grief. "If you ever want me to trust you again, lower that damn shield and let me IN!"

Without a word, she did just that. I spent the rest of our trip looking for something that wasn't there. She had been right about my father not adjusting her. All I could find was the meager attempt to ensure she wouldn't lose the attraction for him she had before he undid the Cabal commands.

I didn't even feel curious about where we were when the limo stopped and its engine was shut off. I was in the mists of comprehending that the morals and integrity my mother had taught me all those years had partially been from her programming and not from her true self.

In fact, several of the things those commands had made her believe in had very nearly been obliterated by the release of her incredible sex drive. My mother was such a sexual creature that, using the braces analogy, not only had most of her 'teeth' already start to move back to their original positions, a few of them had already completed their reversal and were moving further away.

She was losing control of her desires, just like she had right before she had started gathering men to pleasure her night and day. But my mother had never been a heartless woman. During her life as a mistress, she never once took a man who had a wife or children, never once abused them physically or made incapable to make decisions for themselves. She had kept her values for the well being of others, always believing that the ones she had made her slaves were happier and better off as her sexual toys.

The greatest change in my mother's personality had been the weakening of her respect for other's right to choose. The key to my admiration and respect of my mother's judgment had been forced upon her by the Cabal, and now appeared to be in danger of being lost forever. It was as if the woman I had known all my life was battling a deadly disease, but this disease was actually her true nature starting reassert itself.

I had been busily getting my clothes on while thinking about this, and stepped out of the limo just as a man with a toupee on top of his head reached us.

"Master Timothy," he said respectfully before sticking his head inside to say, "Mistress Samantha, Master Charles wishes me to inform you he was able to delay the auction until tomorrow morning. Master Patrick insists you have Master Timothy scanned by the Inquisitor immediately. I am to accompany him to the Inquisitor, then return him to your care afterwards."

"I can assure them that I have done a complete scan of him myself, and I would know if his mind had been tampered with better than either Patrick or the Inquisitor could. He just got out of the hospital three hours ago. Must he have to be put through that so soon?"

"I'm afraid so, Mistress. Master Patrick was quite clear on the matter. Before he is allowed to interact with the others, he has to be cleared of any possibility that he could somehow be part of a larger ploy."

"What's going on, mom?" I asked, finding the topic of the conversation not sounding too pleasant.

"Gordie, if anything happens to him, I'll hold you responsible," she said, looking at me with a distant look in her eyes. Then she snapped out of it and said, "Don't worry, Tim. If there is anyone in the Cabal that I trust, it's the Inquisitor. And Gordie here."

"Uhm, any particular reason why you trust this Inquisitor dude?"

"Did you find any meddling in my head?" she asked.

"No. You know I didn't," I said. Then I thought to myself, "Or at least nothing by anyone I didn't know."

"The Inquisitor is the strongest among us, and is a guardian of sorts. One of the things he does is scan telepaths who deal with the Cabal to ensure the safety of the group. I think he also assesses everyone's mental strength just to make sure he could break through their defenses in case he has to. Isn't that right, Gordie?"

"Not a precise definition of his job, but adequate for Master Timothy's understanding for now. Mistress, the Inquisitor is waiting... "

"Tim, go with him and do what they tell you. Don't make a fuss. The sooner you get this over with the better."

"Oh, all right. But I don't like it," I said frowning.

"This way, Master Timothy," Gordie said, indicating towards a collection of buildings next to the giant warehouse.

It was hot outside, and for some reason the limo had stopped in the middle of the parking lot which was only a quarter filled. So as Gordie and I walked, I started to feel somewhat light headed since I hadn't completely recovered yet.

"I'm sorry for the walk, Master Timothy. Master Patrick insisted that you 'feel the sun beat down on you just to let you know you're mortal.' I'm afraid Master Patrick doesn't think very highly of you."

"Huh? Why? What did I do?"

"Oh, don't take it personally. He doesn't care for anyone that he feels is weaker than he is yet he isn't allowed to make a toy out of. He absolutely hates me for the same reason."

When he didn't explain his comment, I attempted to access his thoughts to figure out what exactly he had meant. But to my surprise I found a mental barrier up, and that my probe had not gone unnoticed.

"You may find it wise for you to ask the others before attempting to probe them. I, on the other hand, will allow you to examine my mind if you feel that it is necessary."

"Uhm, no. That's okay. Sorry about that. From the way you keep calling everyone Master and Mistress I thought... "

"You thought I was a mute," he finished for me. "I knew that. Most people make the same mistake. I am a servant of the Cabal. I have no other life now but to serve the will of my Masters and Mistresses. But I do this of my free will. My Voice is too weak to survive without the other's protection."

This time it was my turn to remain quiet, not knowing what to say or ask, plus the fact that I was having trouble keeping my head from spinning made me concentrate on just keeping my balance. So you can imagine I was very grateful when we finally arrived at the door and entered into the air conditioning.

Gordie led me to the second closest door and said, "I will remain out here until the Inquisitor is finished with you, then I will take you to your mother and father inside the warehouse where you can rest," then promptly knocked and opened the door.

I walked into the small office, finding a man staring straight at me smoking a pipe. His eyes held a sense of intelligence, and I could feel how strong his deep moral beliefs were and that they were struggling with something. I almost felt sorry for his internal dilemma, but I also felt his conviction to carry out his latest task and take whatever course of action required if there was a problem. And since I was that task, his greatest concern was if he would have kill me, something he was attempting to not think about.

All this I felt out with my empathic senses, having taken Gordie's words to heart about unauthorized probes.

Seeing I was slightly uneasy, or perhaps because I was looking a bit pale, he said, "Please sit down son. I'm not going to hurt you."

"You hope," I said under my breath.

He blinked at my words a moment since he apparently just thought the same thing to himself, then discarded them as simply coincidence.

"Do you understand what I'm going to do?" he asked a moment later.

"You're going to scan me, and then see how strong I am or something,"

"Actually, it's the other way around. I want you to do everything in your power to stop me from scanning you. Then if I can't... Well, we'll just have to see if that happens and go from there. Do you think you're up to it?"

"No, but that doesn't matter. If you want to see how strong I am when I'm back to normal, you'll get a fight worth your time. But right now, can't I just let you in and get it over with? Otherwise you might have to have Gordie bring in a mop when my brain explodes."

"How about you try your best without hurting yourself for now, all right?" he said, tapping his pipe out and setting it down on the desk.

"Okay," I said. "Uhm, you're not going to tell anyone about anything... embarrassing, are you?"

"I'm sure you haven't done anything nearly as embarrassing as some of the other voices I've scanned. You don't have anything to worry about."

"Unless you find something you don't like... Well, I don't think that will happen, so... Okay. I'm ready as I'll ever be."

I immediately felt a pressure against my mental barrier that seemed to come from every direction. I could tell he was just letting me get focused on resisting his probe, and even though I was having to strain at it a little, it was quite clear that he wasn't even trying yet.

He slowly built the pressure up, giving me every chance to make my best effort, and he was actually starting to put some work into it when I felt I was pushing myself a little too hard. Figuring he would find out about it soon enough, I decided to try giving him a run for his money in a different way than he was expecting.

As my eyes found his, I quickly formed an empathic connection and immediately felt his deep regret and guilt for something he had to have done. But as I felt my own defenses starting to fail, I attempted to knock him off guard by sharing my side of the link with him.

While it did startle him... It didn't phase him enough to make the pressure on my mind waver in the least.

I couldn't take the strain any longer, so I shut down both the empathic link and my barrier to let him in. At least my empathic abilities had told me his intentions where honest enough to not worry about any deceit.

I tried to ignore him as he probed every corner of my mind. It was very uncomfortable to have a stranger looking so deep into my being, but after a while I focused my attention on his mind, finding there was a tiny hole in his own barrier where his powerful probe must have been coming from.

His own attention wasn't on my current thoughts, so for a little while I got bits and pieces of what was troubling him. I found that just a few months ago he had ordered to have someone assassinated, something he agonized over ever since the report came back it had been carried out successfully.

I was just getting into a few of the details, like it was a 'rogue voice' that had taken over a shopping mall and was about to commit mass murder, when he noticed my intrusion in his own affairs and quickly cut me off.

Or more accurately, cut my own powers off, making them completely inaccessible to me like while I had been drugged. But even the mighty Inquisitor couldn't turn my empathic abilities off. Not that they would tell me anything I was curious to know.

So I sat there waiting what seemed like forever, and eventually was fighting to stay awake. I was just starting to drift off when he gasped and suddenly discontinued his scan.

"What? Did you find something?" I asked, feeling panicked from the way the Inquisitor appeared shakened up.

"Just... Give me a moment," he said, wiping his brow. As he filled his pipe and lit it, he recovered his wits and released my telepathic abilities.