Kagaku Ninja-Tai Gatchaman Fan Fiction ❯ Twin Hearts ❯ For The Love Of Jason - Mark's POV ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

TWIN HEARTS

CHAPTER 1 - For The Love Of Jason

A "Battle of the Planets" Alternative Universe Fan Fiction.

Warnings: NC17 For Male-Male Sex, References to Rape (NCS) and Torture. Please do NOT read on if references to rape disturb you. You've been warned, so please don't flame me for it. Contains Slash, (or Yaoi, and Shononai), (i.e. Boy-Boy love and sex), so be warned. Also, OOC, AU and NCC. (i.e. Very Out Of Character, Alternative Universe and Non Canon Characterisations, situations and events).

Note: The BOTP characters do NOT belong to me, they belong to Sandy Frank and Tatsunoko Productions. No copyright infringement is intended. No money/profit is being made from this fiction. It is purely for entertainment purposes only.

MARK'S POV

Something was wrong I sensed it, opening my eyes I looked down at the face of my love below me, buried to the hilt within him, his tight heat surrounding me, I wanted to see his eyes as I made slow sensual love to him.

I pulled out, and began the plunge back in when the 'something wrong' hit me between the eyes. He was too tense, rigid with tension in fact. I cast my mind back over the past few minutes and remembered a groaning cry from him as I pushed into him. In my pleasure dazed mind I'd thought it had been of ecstasy.

Now, looking at the blind fear on his face, his eyes rolled back in his head, tears streaming from them, his body trembling uncontrollably, it was obviously fear he was feeling, and pain, a great deal of physical pain.

It hit me like a shockwave in the gut through our bond.

"Jason?" I whispered uncertainly.

God, what was wrong? Only minutes before he'd been writhing in the throes of passion on the end of my fingers as they prepared him to take my length within him.

With the gentle massaging of his prostate he'd been twisting under me, my mouth hot on his, my fingers probing as he pushed back on them. His penis had been hot and heavy and hard.

But now, he lay there in terror, his penis flaccid, his breath gasping in and out of his pain filled body.

With slow gentleness, I pulled out of him and allowed his legs to drop down on to the bed as I crouched between them. My heart hammered with the same amount of fear I could see in his face and sense in his body and soul.

"Jason?" I whispered again, leaning up over him and touching his face with the palm of my hand.

"Please talk to me. Tell me what's wrong?" I begged of him, even though a part of me that I didn't want to listen to was screaming out the reasons for his pain and anguish.

No! No! My mind recoiled from the possibility.

Please... I thought... Don't let it be that... Please...

Crawling backwards, I carefully manoeuvred off the bed.

For a long moment he lay there, as I left him, spread out on the sheets. Then suddenly he curled up on his side, facing the wall away from me, into a tight foetal ball, his tears turning to wracking sobs, convulsive shudders shaking his far too slim form.

Dashing into the bathroom, I splashed water all over my face. The memory of his groaning, strangled screams echoing in my head, as vision after vision of myself impaling him assaulted me.

How the fuck had I mistaken his choked off screams of pain for 'ecstasy'? My God, was I that selfish? My stomach tied itself up into knots and it took everything within me not to throw up violently into the toilet. Instead, I searched around for a first aid kit, finding it I scrubbed my hands using the anti-bacterial soap from the kit and drew on some lightweight disposable sterile gloves.

Taking the kit, my numb feet took me back to Jason's side.

Putting it down on the floor, I sat beside him and laid a hand on his trembling shoulder.

He flinched away from me, and my heart shattered somewhere inside of me.

"Jason?" I repeated, willing him to hear me. "Jason, please let me examine you. I need to know that I've not hurt you. I need to know what's hurting you now. Please."

We're all trained in paramedic's and nursing, so examining him would be quick, easy and effortless, if I could just get his leave to do so.

After a few moments he inclined his head, so rolling him over I stretched him out along the bed, and gently spread his legs apart. He kept his face pressed into the sheets, eyes tightly closed, his fists clutching at the bed clothing throughout my examination.

A brief external and internal exam told me all that I needed to know. After cleaning him up and applying some soothing salve to the bleeding tears, I searched around the floor.

Finding his clothing, I gently turned him and pulled him to myself, then drew on his under pants and sweat pants and helped him on with his t-shirt. Rolling him over into my arms, I pushed the bed clothes aside and laid him gently inside, lastly wrapping the bedding around him, finishing it off with a couple of extra blankets.

Afterwards, I quickly dressed myself in similar clothing.

Not once had he opened his eyes, although he had relaxed somewhat when I began to dress him.

Now, lying in bed in a foetal position, still crying, he allowed me to stroke his hair and kiss his temple, as the convulsive shuddering and shivering slowly subsided.

Rummaging again in the First Aid kit, I pulled out a syringe and a vial.

"Jason?" My voice sounded loud in the room. "I'm going to give you a mild sedative now, it will help you sleep, okay?" He made no response, but allowed me to take his arm.

Finding the vein, I pushed the syringe home, then the contents. Removing it, I rubbed the site for a bit, then kissed it.

After putting his arm back under the covers, I stretched out behind him and laid with one hand stroking the hair on his forehead, the other gently down his arm. After a short while, his breathing evened out, and it was obvious he'd dropped off to sleep.

Getting up, I kissed him one final time on the temple before moving out to the kitchen, making sure he was in my line of sight at all times.

Sitting at the table my head span around the ramifications of what I'd found.

To my shock there was blood, indicating that I had hurt Jason going in and coming out.

My heart constricted painfully in my chest at the thought.

Of course, my penetration hadn't been what had caused the original injuries. It had simply reopened still healing pre-existing ones.

I wondered again at my selfishness, which had obviously ignored somehow the physical evidence before my eyes as we'd made love earlier in the evening. I'd even missed the desperation in Jason's eyes as he'd almost pleaded with me to take him. Of course I'd been eager to try, after all, Jason and I had been lovers for more than 6 months already, and not once had we 'fucked', to put it crudely. Previously we'd completed the sex act with our hands and mouths and the friction of rubbing against each other.

Jason, a Virgin when it came to male-male sex, had not been ready to go the extra step until tonight, when he'd practically thrown himself at me and begged for me to show him how it 'should' be.

That expression alone should have set off the alarm bells I guess.

My gut twisted. Why, why hadn't he told me about what had happened? The evidence was plain, Jason had been raped, obviously brutally, sometime in the recent past, and the healing was taking a strong physical and emotional toll on him.

Why had he not told me? Why had someone else not told me? Jason and I are bonded and married after all. Never would I have gone through with full on sex with him if I'd known what he'd been through, or known that he was not ready for the physical sex act yet.

Then my mind wandered back to the only time it could have happened and my heart threatened to stutter to a stop.

Holy shit, it should have been obvious to me without being told. God, I hadn't even read the full med reports on his condition, as I'd been too afraid to know, too scared of loosing him permanently.

Now I remembered feeling so damn fucking scared for him and terrified to know the finer details of his ordeal. Not because of not wanting to be supportive, but due to being so damned scared he was going to die on me, or if not, never fully recover.

Obviously I'd blocked the possibility of sexual assault from my heart and mind at the time, when we'd rescued Jason from Spectra's clutches six weeks previously.

Stupid! Stupid! Totally selfish and stupid! I berated myself.

Jason had been in hospital 5 weeks, and out for 1 and still staying at the ISO, when he'd come to me tonight.

God what a completely selfish fool I was, certainly Jason deserved a better lover.

The fateful mission: Just under seven weeks ago Jason had gone on a solo mission. We do those, we always have, they're an extra to our G-Force roles. Yet it seems to me that we need to reassess the role of G-Force in that, especially after what happened to Jason.

It was a simple solo base infiltration. Grab the data and get the hell out, before they knew we'd even been there. No problem. Right? Wrong! He hadn't returned. Approaching four days past the deadline for his call in and my alarm bells were going haywire, warning me that he was in terrible danger somewhere.

We always blocked our bond to each other while on missions, either solo or team ones, so reaching him was nearly impossible.

Later, after we retrieved Jason, the Red Ranger team discovered that Zoltar had somehow found out the Condor was coming and had set a deliberate trap for him. Zoltar wanted the Condor humiliated and dead, and we had handed him the chance on a silver platter.

My bond to Jason had stretched to breaking point as I searched for his psychic signal.

My heart felt heavy in my chest when I found the connection, only to discover it was laden with pain and death was creeping ever closer.

Mobilising the team, I used my psychic link to Jason to locate the base and his exact whereabouts within it.

Parking the Phoenix out of sight, I went in with Tiny only, wanting to get in and out fast and clean. We found him in a cell, they hadn't even bothered to close the door to, lying curled on the floor in a pool of blood and bodily wastes, his limbs twisted in unnatural angles, broken bones showing whitely through the skin of his legs and arms. His breathing was laboured and harsh, blood trailed out of his mouth onto the floor. He was so covered in blood it was hard to tell where he began and the pool of blood ended.

Without thinking I dashed over to him, a scream of anguish on my lips, and picked him up in my arms. He screamed in pain and coughed, choking off gurgling when the blood welled up in his throat. I brushed his hair back form his blood stained face. His eyes looked up at me, so glazed with pain and horror my soul had screamed in agony with him.

Tiny had dumped the stretcher, then came and helped me get Jason on to it. We wrapped him in a blanket, and then picking up our precious burden, ran back to the Phoenix.

Somehow, by some miracle, we'd made it in and out of the base mostly undetected.

On board, between us Princess and I stabilised him, hooking up IV lines and Blood transfusion lines, setting the bones, etc., relieving the pressure on the lungs from the broken ribs. There were also massive internal injuries, other than the obvious external ones.

Tiny raced us back to the base, and Jason was raced into surgery.

For over a week afterwards he hovered between life and death, while I stood vigil at his bedside, refusing to leave. In the end they allowed me to sleep in the other bed in the room to be near to him. Nearing the two-week point Jason had rallied and come out of his coma, to my obvious relief.

I'd hardly noticed Jason's flinch when I'd kissed him back then.

But, I remembered it now clearly, and groaned.

Rape, my God. Of course the signs had been there.

Thinking back I remembered the blood covering Jason all over, but especially on his hips, thighs and legs, and now, I remembered the white-crusted substance.

My breath shuddered to a stop in my throat.

Semen.

He'd been covered in blood 'and' semen, on his lower body and on his face and chest.

My mind reeled. He was in that cell for close to four days. The chances were the rapes and beatings had been sustained over nearly the entire time.

By his physical damage, not only had the beatings been brutal, the rapes had also.

They'd been trying to kill him. That much was obvious. He'd been left in that cell to die, that much also was obvious, when we found him. That there'd been more than one person involved, quite possibly a large number, was also obvious.

Damn Zoltar to hell!

My heart went cold as ice.

Christ! Christ! What kind of lover, no, what kind of commander was I to have missed all of that? Or, had I wanted to miss it? Had I blinded myself to the evidence staring me in the face? Thank God someone hadn't, as he'd been treated properly when we returned him home, had been having counselling, been getting the support lacking from me.

My decision to visit and have a serious chat with Chief Anderson regarding keeping secrets from his G-Force commanding officer resolved itself strongly.

Jason stirred in the room, and muttered, curling himself, if possible, into an even tighter ball. I stood and went to him, then sat on the edge of the bed and stroked his hair.

"Mark?" He muttered, turning he looked at me with sleep hazed eyes.

"Hold me." He mumbled. "Please hold me." His voice caught on the last. I shimmied into the bed under the blankets and curled myself around my love. He snuggled into me, his face pressed into my neck, his arms hugging me to him like a teddy bear. I drew him close and rocked him gently until I felt his breathing evening out against my chest, soft and warm and silky.

I crooned to him a little lullaby my Mother had sung to me as a child. He sighed with a contented rush. "That's nice!" He murmured softly and his breathing once again lengthened, his breath brushing gently across my throat.

I held him fiercely. God it was good to hold him after coming so near to loosing him.

Jason, as always, smelled of Ivory soap, herbal shampoo, cologne, grease and oil.

He must have been tinkering with his other cars, currently stored in the ISO garage, before coming to see me. The G2 was in the Phoenix, but Jason owned a couple of other cars. Both of them race cars. One for Rally Car races, one for Stock Car races.

I breathed in his scent, allowing it to wash over me, comforting and strong.

I kissed the top of his head, and continued my crooning, until I too drifted off to sleep, my body curled comfortingly around his.

*

Something softly tickled my neck, then my nose, and then my mouth. A hot warm tongue slipped its way between my lips and sinuously massaged mine.

Now I definitely was awake.

"Mmmph... Jason, what are you doing?" I managed to mumble around his ardent kisses.

He quirked an incredulous eyebrow at me. "What does it look like?" He breathed into my ear, then slipped his tongue into it. I jerked a little at the electric sensation that sent straight to my groin.

His hand slipped up my thigh to cup me through my sweat pants, and stroke me erotically.

"God Jason!" I gasped, as I surged up into his hand.

"Are you sure you're up to this? After?" I searched his eyes anxiously, but saw only need and desire within them.

"Yeah." He murmured and captured my mouth in another long kiss, one hand moving to massage a nipple, the other moving to slip inside my sweat pants to grasp my aching need.

"My, my." He murmured. "We're hot today!"

I growled at him, which was about all I could manage to articulate by that time.

With graceful fluidity, Jason pulled the bed clothing off us and onto the floor, then with breath taking speed divested us both of our own clothing.

For a moment he knelt next to me, drinking in my nakedness, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Then...

"Let me love you Mark?" He asked, an odd shake in his voice.

Understanding dawned.

He wanted to caress me without me doing anything to him in return.

I vocalised exactly that and he nodded.

"Okay... But..." My hesitation seemed to worry him, as his brows drew further together.

"Yes!" I quickly reassured him.

"But, only if that is what you really want and need Jason, please don't hurt yourself in the process."

He bent over me and took a nipple in his mouth, after a moment of suckling at it, he murmured. "It's what I want." He then went back to laving me with his tongue, first one nipple, and then the next.

It took all the self-control I possess not to grab him and pin him to the bed, but I managed to over come the urge.

His talented mouth and hands caressed my upper body, sending shockwaves of ecstasy straight down to my hot aching groin. He kissed hot wet kisses down my torso, and delicate butterfly kisses around my testicles, taking first one, then the other in his mouth and sucking on it. His mouth moved to my hard penis and he licked up under the underside of it to the tip, and then circled his tongue around the slit before taking me fully into his mouth, his hands massaging and kneading my testicles and shaft as he suckled.

By this time I was surging up into his mouth, the pressure building to uncomfortable degrees in my groin. Then I was coming, my hot seed spilling into his mouth, the sensations electric as he milked me dry. As I lay panting on the bed he kissed his way back up to my mouth, then took it in a deep kiss, the taste of myself salty on his lips.

Then, with a suddenness that left me gasping he moved a hand up and around my buttocks and pushed a finger deep inside of me, raking it across my prostate. I hadn't even seen him applying the gel to his fingers, in the throws of my crashing orgasm.

I screamed and arched my back.

"Christ Jason, what are you...?"

He chuckled. "Just relax, love." He whispered in my ear, twisting the finger around.

"Oh God." I groaned pushing myself onto him as another lubricated finger was added in with the first.

With slow sensual movements he scissored and twirled the fingers inside of me, reducing me to a sensitive mass of writhing pleasure. I could feel myself growing hard again under his ministrations.

As his fingers moved within me, his mouth moved on top of me, finally taking my length into it once again.

I could feel myself go rock hard as he sucked and licked me, then he added a third finger and white hot stars began bursting behind my eyes.

"Oh God, Jason." I groaned again, pushing back urgently on his fingers.

Then he was reaching across me to the bedside table for the tube of lube.

Removing his fingers, he kissed away my disappointed groan.

Lavishly he coated himself with the lube, and it was only then that I noticed how hard he was and how ready.

My penis surged in response, and I groaned just looking at him pleasuring himself as he massaged the oils into his straining length.

Then he was recoating his fingers with lube and pushing them back inside of me, until I was slick and wet with the stuff.

He removed his fingers and propping my ankles over his shoulders, he replaced the digits with the tip of his penis.

His hard bluntness pushing at me.

He hesitated for a long moment, looking down at me with worried concern in his eyes.

"Christ Jason, what are you waiting for?" I pushed against him.

"Nothing obviously." He breathed and pushed himself inside of me in a long slow driving motion, which left me gasping, the breath driving in and out of my body, my back arching up to meet him.

Soon we were moving together in perfect rhythm, our bodies pushing against each other.

I reached for my aching shaft, but he was ahead of me. Taking me in his hands, he pumped me in time with his strokes. All I could do was arch my head back in the pillows and moan with the ecstasy of it.

He leant forward and laved my nipples, then kissed my neck and finally took my mouth in a long passionate kiss, one of his hands still pumping me, the other massaging a nipple.

In all too short a length of time we were coming together, screaming into each other's mouths.

He surged against me a few more times before collapsing on top of me.

I wrapped my legs around him, momentarily keeping him inside of me.

"God, that was incredible." I gasped in his ear.

"Yeah, incredible." He mumbled, nibbling at my shoulder.

With one last push against me, he pulled out with a groaning sigh and sat back on his heels near me on the bed.

I looked him over anxiously; concerned that he might have hurt himself doing what he'd just done, wondering if I should have allowed him to continue when he'd first started.

"Are you okay?" My eyes raked over his genitals.

"Yeah! Fine Mark. Look, I'm obviously not ready for you to do this to me, but, if I can do this to you, and still enjoy it, why argue over it, right?"

Well, I couldn't argue with the logic of that, I guess, so I shrugged in resignation.

"Okay, Jase, as long as you're sure."

He kissed me again. "I'm sure, love. Stop worrying."

What could I say to that? He murmured something about taking a shower and disappeared into the bathroom.

I stretched luxuriously, then hopped up and stripped the sheets off the bed. Dropping them on the floor, I found fresh ones and remade the bed. Then dropped the soiled ones into my laundry hamper.

Cleaning myself off, and slipping back on my undies, sweatpants and t-shirt, I shambled out to the kitchen to make us some breakfast.

The bacon and tomatoes were sizzling, the toast popped, and eggs scrambled, before I began wondering where the hell Jason was.

I wandered to the bathroom door.

"Hey, lover boy, are you still alive in there?" I called to him, forcing the worry from my voice.

There was no response, so I knocked on the door. "Jason? Breakfast is ready."

Still no response.

I chewed my bottom lip in a worried way for a moment.

Making my decision, I went back to the kitchen and turned the stove off and moved back to the bathroom door.

I knocked again. "Jason?" This time there was a definite note of panic in my voice.

Images of him lying in a pool of blood inside filled me. I tried to decipher whether they were a psychic message, or my fevered imagination, and decided not to take the chance.

Pushing open the door, which thankfully was not locked, the first thing I heard was the shower, the second a low whimpering sound.

I looked around for him and then pulled aside the curtain, the water rushed out to embrace me.

My eye's widened in shock.

Jason, was sitting huddled in the bottom of the shower, his arms wrapped around his legs, shivering and rocking himself, his head buried in his knees, small keening noises coming from him.

But, worst of all was the blood, a small trickle of it dripped from one arm to land in the swirling water.

I watched it in fascination as it curled away down the drain, only to be followed by another and another.

With surging adrenalin, I was down on my knees in front of Jason, grasping his shoulders. Within seconds soaked through to the skin by the warm pounding water. With an exclamation of annoyance I swivelled around and tuned the pounding stream off.

In the sudden quiet, Jason's whimpers were frighteningly loud in my ears.

With a slosh of water, I was back by his side, and prising his right arm away from his body, the blood welled and dripped from it as I grasped it.

A quick once over reassured me that it was only a small cut, so I compressed it with my fingers, trying to get the bleeding to stop, not helped by the wetness of his skin.

"Jesus, what were you thinking Jason?" I growled, as I pressed my thumb into the cut, looking around for the source of the damage as I did so.

There on the shower floor was a razor blade. One of 'my' razor blades.

I shuddered at how close I'd come to once again loosing my sweet boy.

Anger took over and I grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"What the fuck were you doing?" I hissed at him, shaking him until he looked up at me, his eyes dilated with fear, tears streaming down his face.

He cringed back from me with a cry, and my heart twisted in my chest.

"I just... I just wanted the p-pain to stop, Mark." He finally gasped out. "But I... But I c-couldn't do... Do it in the... The end... Oh God! I'm so fucked up!"

He pulled away from me and tried to scramble up, only to slip and fall heavily to his knees, a groan of pain escaping him as his still healing legs jarred underneath him.

I reached out to him, both physically and psychically, and found that he was indeed in great depths of emotional and physical pain.

"When was the last time you took your pain medication, Jason?" He looked at me in a bemused way for a moment, "I... I... d-don't re-remember." He managed, through his gasping breathing and streaming tears.

With a frustrated sigh, I helped him to his feet and bodily lifted him out of the shower and over to a relatively dry mat on the floor.

"Can you stand?" I asked, probably a little too roughly, as I felt him shiver under my grasp.

He nodded, so I leant away from him to grab a towel. With quick efficiency I had him towelled off, and then disinfected and dressed the small wound.

Taking a comb, I swept it through his towel-dried hair.

All the while he leant against me, silent tears streaking down his face.

Reaching up into the cupboard, I pulled out a vial and a syringe, and drew the liquefied version of his pain medication into it. Taking his arm, I found a vein and pushed the sharp tip in, injecting the fluid.

Rubbing the site, I tried to calm my feelings of frustrated anger, in case Jason mistook it as anger towards himself, which he probably already had, on second thoughts.

Actually, I was angry at the fates in general, and the fuckwits who'd damaged my love's body and soul in particular.

Heads would roll, preferably off Spectran shoulders, ran like a mantra through my mind.

Jason began to shudder and the tears came faster now, so I took him in my arms.

"Shhh baby, it's alright, I'm not mad at you. I'm only mad at what's been done to you."

For Jason's sake I fought down the anger, knowing he'd be able to feel it through our bond, and coxed calmness to flow through me and then on into him. After a bit, I felt him relax, his head buried in my neck and shoulder, eyes dripping further wetness onto my skin.

Thinking of being soaked through, I lowered him gently onto the closed toilet seat.

"Just need to get out of my wet clothes, Jase, then we can get dressed."

He slumped on the seat and closed his eyes. I could see and feel him concentrating on calming down, on trying to soothe away the fear and the pain.

God how I loved him and God how I hoped he realised that.

Dried off, hair combed, I managed to get us both back into the bedroom, where I sat him down on the bed while I rummaged for some clothing for us. Digging out clean under pants, sweat pants and t-shirts, and adding warm woolly socks to the mix, I managed to get us both dressed.

Then joined Jason on the bed, where he sat listlessly staring at the floor.

Taking his hand, I caressed it gently.

"Would you like to clue me in on what happened here this morning Jase?" I pressed him softly.

With a shiver, Jason began talking, looking down at our clasped hands.

"This morning, after what happened last night, I just wanted to erase the pain. I hoped making love to you would help. If I could only feel pleasure and desire for you, you know? So I jumped you, sort of."

He paused and I waited patiently for him to continue.

"And, y'know, it was nice, it felt great actually. It hurt some, yeah, around the scarring, but it felt great, and for a moment I forgot it all. Everything! All the pain, all the horror, all the loss..."

He trailed off for a bit, a small smile quirking his lips, which all too soon faded away.

"Then I went to have a shower, and just after turning on the water, my knees gave out, and I fell down onto them, badly jarring my legs up to my hips. The pain was horrific and it was all I could do not to scream out with it."

"Then it happened. A flash back so intense it left me gasping. Suddenly, all I could feel was their hands, lips, tongue's, cocks, and God knows what else, all over me, touching me, caressing me, penetrating, stroking, making me ejaculate. Oh God! It was awful!"

He began to shudder, so I put my arms around him and held him close, stroking his back with gentle circular motions. He melted into me, and so I held him for a long time while he gathered his thoughts and emotions together.

When he continued it was in a small voice, I had to strain to hear clearly.

"Desperate, I managed to hoist myself back to my feet, and over to the cabinet, where I grabbed the razor blade. All I wanted right then was for the images, and the pain to stop. I went back to the shower and knelt under the spray, and pressed the blade into my skin. When it cut in and the blood welled up and out, I suddenly felt myself snap back into focus. I dropped the blade and then curled up on myself instead and cried, but the images kept coming and coming at me, smothering me with their reality and intensity."

"You found me a short while after that. I just couldn't do it in the end. I wanted to, God knows, I still do, but to take that final step? All I could see were your sad eyes when you found me dead, and I couldn't do it. I can't leave you with that pain to bear! I just can't!"

He choked off and buried himself into my chest his shoulder's shaking.

I did something I'm not proud of, but I needed Jason out of the way for a while.

Using my Rigan psi powers, I drew the pain out of him with a gentle kiss to the top of his head, and a brush of my fingers down his face.

Jason and I are not fully human. That's understood. I'm part Rigan and part Terran and Jason is part Spectran, part Rigan and part Terran.

Rigan's and Spectran's are highly psi-sensitive people, some having incredible powers.

In that respect Jason and I are no different.

Jason is somewhat more special. He's an Empath, a true one. He can feel not only other people's pain and emotions, he can also help to calm them and give them back inner peace. He can also heal, partially at least, anyway, at this stage. His ability will grow stronger and stronger as he grows older and learns better how to utilise his special gifts.

Unfortunately he can't fully heal himself, that's beyond an Empath's ability.

We believe he inherited the gift from his Rigan\Spectran genes, which seems a pretty good bet.

I too can heal to a certain extent; all Rigan's can, but not to the scope Jason can.

To a limited degree, I can temporarily soothe another's pain, and heal their memories.

But only temporarily, the pain always comes back afterwards.

Whereas, when Jason does it, well, it's gone for good! That's part of his Empathic ability.

I remember once when Princess was mortally injured in an explosion, Jason raced to her side and knelt by her. He did something I'd never seen before up to then. He laid one hand on her temple and one on her heart and closed his eyes. Soon he was surrounded in a soft blue glow, which widened to encompass Princess. As I watched, the worst of her wounds knit themselves together, and her breathing became far less shallow and laboured and some colour returned to her face. He couldn't heal her completely, but he was able to do enough to save her life, and then, he fainted clean away. When we managed to get them both back on the Phoenix, and on back to Centre Neptune, it took hours to revive him, and when we did, he needed to rest and meditate for an entire day to get his strength fully back.

It was an incredible thing to witness, but it is very draining for him energy wise.

This side effect will get less and less pronounced as he becomes more skilled.

Now, I used my limited abilities, in comparison to his, to soothe Jason, temporarily.

There was something I needed to do, had to do, and I needed him out of it for a while, or he'd stop me.

He knew what I was doing to his mind of course; he is the Empath after all.

"That feels good, Mark." He murmured into my chest. "Thank You!"

Within minutes, I practically had him purring.

"Mmmm... Mark, can you take the pain and memories permanently?" He almost pleaded, his arms tightening around me.

I shook my head. "You know I can't do that Jason, and even if I could, I wouldn't, it's too dangerous. Taking your memories could erase other parts of you as well, parts that need to be there. What if you forgot who you were, or, how you felt about me, or, or, anything else, or, something else really vital to you? It's not worth the risk sweetheart."

Jason heaved a gusting sigh, and if possible relaxed even further into my embrace.

"Yeah, good point!" He whispered. "Just take them for a little while then, okay, let me sleep without nightmares or medication for a change. Okay?"

I kissed him on the head again. "No problem." I murmured and proceeded to do just that.

Within a few more minutes, he was snoring softly into my rib cage, causing interesting little ripples to run through my body.

Shifting him a little, I pulled back the sheets and blankets, and laid him inside the bed, then pulled the coverings up over him, tucking them around him. He mumbled a little, but otherwise stayed asleep with a little smile on his face, the pain and grief soothed away.

Moments later I was rummaging around for the clothing I needed for the mission in front of me. Pulling it on I adjusted it in front of the mirror. I wore black on black on black.

Black jump suit, black boots, black mask, black gun, knife and boomerang holsters. A similar outfit to what Jason had been wearing for that fateful mission two months ago. It didn't do to wear Birdstyle for those missions, as it was too easily recognisable. So we resorted to wearing something more concealing at those times. Underneath the black suit I wore a bulletproof vest, which was my only protection, other than the weapons.

After checking the weapons were loaded, and all was in order, and grabbing a few other supplies, I stopped by Jason and kissed his temple one last time.

"Sleep well, my love." I whispered in his ear. "I'll return to you soon, I promise."

Then, without another backward glance, I walked out the door, and out to my plane, and took off into the midday sun.

*

I knew where the base was, and even remarkably, that it was still in operation, even after we'd gone in and retrieved Jason. Zoltar had been getting more and more bold in recent years. Not surprising I guess, as the war dragged on.

It had been nearly 7 years since the war broke out full force, after over 53 years of intense cold war between the Earth and Spectra. We'd been barely 15 years old at the time. Jason and I had made our first kills before we blew the candles out on our 15th birthday cakes.

It scars the soul really.

We ceased to be children from that day onwards.

Our childhood forever washed away by blood.

Endless, endless rivers of blood.

As I flew towards my destination, I couldn't help thinking about when I first realised how I felt about Jason.

The feeling hadn't always been there, it had grown to be there over time and experiences.

It had been about two and a half years ago that I felt the first tugging at my heartstrings.

We'd been on a mission, and Jason had been trapped in the base. Somehow managing to fall into a hidden trap door and secure cell. I'd been with him at the time, but had managed to leap clear as the floor gave away beneath us. Reaching for Jason, his fingers had literally slipped through mine, as he disappeared into the yawning void, the trap doors slamming hard after him, nearly cutting off my arm.

We looked for him of course, until we could look no more, then we were forced to leave.

We blew the base still. What could we do? That was the mission, and the base had to go.

It broke my heart, but for the greater good...

Sometimes those words are so fucking empty!

A few days later we were made aware that Jason wasn't still in the base when we blew it sky high after all, when the first horrifying images were sent to us via Zoltar's private satellite lines to Chief Anderson at the ISO.

He had Jason, and he was brutally torturing him.

I wished any number of times over the coming six or seven weeks that Jason had been killed when we blew the base. At least he would have been spared what he was put through.

It transpired that Jason's communicator had broken, when they shot it off his wrist, shattering the bone in the process, which left him vulnerable.

Jason is resistant to mind warping drugs, and has been trained to withstand torture.

But of course, this didn't stop Zoltar from trying, and from getting perverse pleasure out of it.

For the next six to seven weeks, Zoltar constantly transmitted images of the various torture's he was inflicting on Jason, and so for over six weeks we suffered along with our brother, until the Red Ranger's, (my father's old unit), finally, finally found his location, and then we were off and running.

When we arrived we found that Zoltar had broken almost every bone in Jason's body, and crushed some others. His internal and external injuries were horrific. The fact he survived can only be put down to a miracle, because he certainly should have died.

We managed to get him home alive, and with a combination of Earth and Alien technologies, managed to restructure his body. Jason now has a mixture of Cybernetics and Bionics in his body, replacing things too damaged by his torture's to be saved. He also endured months of re-gen treatment, Rigan healing treatments, and bone regrowth.

Just over a year stood down from the team rebuilding him and recuperating, and he was back up to full strength again. In fact, he was probably better than before physically.

That time, though, he'd not been raped, not even so much as sexually molested. The tortures had been horrific, and the resulting nightmares were bad for him, but at least he'd been spared the pain of rape that time.

We came to believe that Zoltar didn't believe in rape as a punishment or a humiliation.

What stupid fools we were really, to be so lulled.

It was during that first time Zoltar had Jason that I realised where my feelings were for him, as I analysed just how devastated I was and why. Then the relief when we got him back was crushing. So bad, I cried on Princess's shoulder for hours afterwards, with relief, and the terrible fear that he still might die on us, on me.

Still, stupidly I fought off the feelings as best I could, as I had when I had thought Princess had a crush on me for all those years.

For the year Jason convalesced, I was his best friend, and almost constant companion.

Our relationship, as a friendship, was better than it ever had been before.

Jason and I have always made a good command team. He makes up for the impulsiveness and intuitiveness I lack, and I make up for the focus and calm control he can sometimes lack. Together we are a formidable team, two halves of the one whole, two sides of the one coin. Without one, the other performs at less than their peak, and so it was with us.

With Jason around I performed at my best, when he wasn't around from time to time I made mistakes, or shaky judgement calls, simply because he wasn't there to 'discuss' with me the pros and cons of my decisions.

The others never argued with me, they just did what I told them to do, no question. But Jason, if he didn't agree, he'd argue, and if I convinced him he was right, he'd go along with me, but if I didn't he'd argue until we compromised, or I ordered him to agree. It sounds bad yeah, but damn, it worked, and we got through more missions alive that way.

That year he was away, I made a few errors of judgement I'm not proud of, so getting him back on the team became an ultimate obsession for me. Pushing aside my growing love for him was essential in that plan.

After all... How could I love my second, and still function?

During that year I worked with Jason during his convalescence, helping him to train with his new modifications, helping him back towards being the soldier he was before it all.

Emotionally, however, Jason was never the same. He grew quieter, and more introspective, he joked and teased less, was less sarcastic, less cynical, more fatalistic. He tended to brood more, and to want to spend large amounts of time alone, away from us all. He spent hours with his cars, and even more hours out at the track, in spite of the danger now that Zoltar knew his identity.

In one concession to my concerns, he moved his trailer out to my airfield and parked it in a vacant lot near by, where I could keep an eye on him, in case Spectra attacked. It's still parked there to today, although he lives with me full time now.

Then, when he came back to the team, 18 months previously, I treated him like shit.

There's no other way I can describe my behaviour. Autocratic and arrogant are two words that spring readily to mind. Although, arsehole, and son of a bitch, sprang to Jason's mind more constantly, as he so informed me.

He was right; of course, I was a royal bastard for months and it almost got him killed on several occasions.

The problem was, by the time he returned to the team, I had the hots for him so bad, it was driving me insane. I needed desperately to prove to myself that my feelings for him wouldn't see me favouring him at the expense of the others.

So I turned as cold as I could, and tried to shut down the feelings, and attempted to return things to the way they were before Jason was captured.

Naturally, I failed... Miserably.

Even Chief Anderson noticed my awful behaviour and reprimanded me for it on several occasions.

Princess was generally disgusted, which I arrogantly considered good, if it got her off my back as well.

So, in trying to prove my fairness, I over compensated and put Jason in situations that were far too dangerous to be either handled alone, or handled with a less strong partner.

The first few times he considered it a fluke, but after a while he started accusing me of really trying to get him killed. For a long time I ignored him, considering, wrongly, that I was doing my best to deal with the situation.

Then it came to a head one day. I sent Jason on a mission, where he was once again put in danger of his life, and he came home screaming for my blood.

Prior to that however, Princess had come to visit me, also screaming for my blood, on Jason's behalf.

Her first words on entering my home had been: "What the hell is eating you Mark? You've been behaving like a bastard for months now, and it's Jason who is suffering."

She stood with her fisted hands on her hips, legs centred, head titled up, eyes flaming with passion.

For a moment I felt a jealous tug at my heart, as I wondered whether she and Jason...

Well... It was a stupid thought, and I dismissed it almost immediately, she'd shown as much interest in Jason as in me lately, so it wasn't something to worry about.

In the face of her wrath, though, I couldn't keep up the façade and collapsed onto my couch with a defeated air.

"I don't know!" Was all that came out of my mouth. "I just don't know." My shoulders had sagged as I collapsed in on myself.

I felt her come and sit next to me. She lent in and took my hands.

"Mark, why don't you just tell him how you feel?"

I pulled my hands from her grasp with a startled gasp.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

She gave an exasperated sigh beside me, and I risked a peek at her face. She looked terribly annoyed.

"Oh, come on Mark, everyone knows how you feel about Jason. Including, I might add, Jason."

Well that was bad I thought, looking at her with what I was sure had to be an expression of total shock.

"How?" Was all I could really think to ask, and my reward was an exasperated look.

"How? Jesus Mark, you spent an entire year with Jason helping him to recover, deepening your friendship with him. Even Jason was hopeful that you felt something more for him than brotherly love. Then you go, as soon as he rejoins the team, and begin to systematically destroy what you built up. You treat Jason differently these days than you do any of the rest of us, and than you ever did before. But Mark, I'm warning you, Jason has had enough. This mission was the last straw. When he comes back here, he's leaving, you, us, everything and everyone, and moving on. Is that what you want?"

God no! Of course that wasn't what I wanted.

Feeling the blood draining from my face, I stood up and paced, twisting my hands.

"God, I've totally fucked this up!" I groaned at last, then had to chuckle when she said: "Yep, ya sure did bucko!" In a somewhat dry voice.

"God, all I wanted to do was prove to myself that I could work with Jason in spite of how I felt, and to prove to everyone else that I wouldn't favour him over anyone."

She grunted then. "So, you over compensated. Started giving him all the dangerous jobs and missions, the solo ones, and the team ones. Sending him in to the areas of bases you knew would be the most dangerous. Sending him on missions you knew could be deadly. Treating him like an automaton, or a robot. That was not smart Mark!" She snorted.

"No!" I groaned. "Not smart at all."

Coming over to me she grabbed me by the arms. "So what are you going to do about it Mark?"

Drawing in a breath, I simply said: "Make it right!"

She squeezed my arms. "Good!" Then she moved to leave, but I stopped her.

"Prin, what about you?" I asked tentatively. "How do you feel about me, and, and Jason?"

She turned and looked at me curiously for a moment, before coming back over to take my hands.

"Mark, yeah, sure I had a crush on you when I was younger, but as a teenager. I was 14 for God's sake, and half in love with my gorgeous, very gay, stepbrother. Of course I didn't know you were gay at the time, but I worked it out within a couple of years."

"By the time I was 16 the crush had pretty much dissipated in the face of your obvious non-attraction to women. I even dated Jason for a while, but that didn't work either. He too was smitten with you, and we preferred the status quo of brother and sister to lovers. So we dropped it."

I reached out and touched her face. "You and Jason?"

She grinned. "Yeah! I was nearly 16, and Jase was17, and experimenting with girls, and he thought he had a thing for me. Maybe he even did, or perhaps he mistook brotherly love for romantic love? Who knows, but you were a dead-end for me, so, when Jason asked me out, I said yes. We learned quickly that although the dates were fun, we liked each other better as brother and sister. Besides, we both talked about you a lot, and it was obvious, even then, how he felt."

She paused, then said: "Jason's not gay Mark, so it never occurred to him he might be in love with you. But when it comes to matters of the heart, sometimes the heart and soul will not recognise the boundaries of sex, race, creed, or age, and so it is with Jason. You're the only man he's ever loved, probably will ever love, you should treat that as something special Mark. Not like you are now, by throwing him and his love away."

She lent in then, and kissed me on the cheek. "Prove to him you care brother!" Her breath was sweet against my face as she spoke in my ear.

I nodded numbly and promised to try.

Moments later she was gone, and I sank down on the couch to think.

When Jason came back later that night, I watched him moving around the trailer from my Kitchen window.

It didn't take a genius to see what he was doing.

He was hooking the G2 back up and generally getting ready to move on.

I lifted the phone and dialled his cell phone number. "Yeah?" He asked when he clicked on receive. I could see him talking from the window.

"It's Mark!" I responded. "Come to the house, we need to talk."

Then I clicked off, and watched, winching a little as I realised how curt I'd sounded.

He stomped around for a bit, then turned and strode towards the house. It was then that I noted he was still in Birdstyle, his helmet clutched in his hand, wings lifting behind him as he came across.

I moved out of the kitchen and into the lounge area to wait for him.

He slammed through the door, and threw his helmet at me as he walked in the room.

"Well hello commander!" He snarled. "Got another death defying mission for me? Or, are you going to do it the easy way and just shoot me yourself?"

I fingered his helmet, and quickly found the dent, a dent that could only have been made by a bullet. My heart went icy cold in my chest.

My head snapped up to look at his face searchingly. All I saw was hurt, and pain, and anger, no injuries.

"Take a good look, commander." He growled. "I'm unmarked, no thanks to you!"

It was then I saw the dishevelled state of his Birdstyle. Scorch marks streaking his chest.

"I thank God every moment of the day these fucking things are bullet proof." He growled, dusting himself off.

Then he was standing right before me, pushing at me, yelling.

"What the fuck are you playing at Mark? Are you fucking trying to get me killed? There are easier ways you bastard!"

With that he pulled his laser pistol and handed it to me.

"Go ahead, commander sir, shoot me, get it over with faster than you're managing right now!"

He pushed into me, but I ignored the gun.

Then he was shoving me, and yelling at me, and I lost track of what he was saying to me, which only maddened him even further.

Finally he pushed me down on the couch, and loomed over me, demanding explanations of me.

When I did nothing more than gape up at him his shoulders slowly slumped.

"Oh fuck it!" He said, sounding weary, and turned on his heels to move towards the door.

I surged to my feet, and leapt after him, grasping him by the arm, swinging him around.

"No, Jason!" I gasped. "Please don't go like this!"

He glared into my eyes. "Well fuck Mark, how would you like me to go?" He sneered.

With that I flinched, and swallowed my pride.

"I'm sorry Jase, I've been a real arsehole to you lately. I deserve everything you've said to me. I just... just..." But then I couldn't say it, my voice trailed off.

"Well fine!" He said after a short while. "But I'm still leaving. My resignation will be in the mail. I'll drop the G2 off at the ISO and pick up my other car for the trailer. You wont be seeing me again after today. Get someone else to do your fucking nasty little jobs for you from now onwards."

He turned and headed back for the door. I gaped at him in shock for a moment, then chased after him again.

"Jason..." I called desperately. "Please, can we talk about it? Can you give me a chance to make it better?"

When he paused uncertainly to look at me, I said: "I have fresh coffee, your favourite blend..."

He hesitated and was lost.

Coming back in with a reluctant grin, he shrugged.

"Sure, why the hell not, I've nothing to loose by listening to you."

We talked long into the night, drank cup after cup of coffee, and I finally made my peace with him.

After that things gradually became better. It took a while for him to trust me again, and it took me a while to learn to trust myself, but over time our relationship both private and work related improved.

We began to work together more smoothly as a team, even better than we had before his year off. The Chief noticed and commented favourably, which was something.

We spent a lot of personal free time together, getting to know each other as friends once again, learning to like, learning to play, learning to love.

We flew together sometimes. Jason is a superb pilot, not that he'll admit that, so we often took a couple of planes up in the air to soar among the clouds.

It was an experience almost better than sex. I often came back in need of a cold shower, and release from an aching need in my groin, hoping Jason wouldn't notice.

Then, one day, almost 6 months ago, we'd just had pizza together, and were lounging around drinking glasses of cheap red wine when I began feeling hot for him.

"God! Fuck it!" I thought. "I can't stand it anymore..."

There was a shuffling sound next to me.

"Can't stand what Mark?" Jason asked lazily.

I hadn't even realised I'd spoken aloud.

Carefully putting my glass down on the coffee table, I took his gently from his hand and placed it next to mine. Then, leaning in, I kissed him, slowly and gently, feather light.

When he didn't respond, I sat back. Confusion was evident on his face. Leaping to my feet I stumbled away from him, babbling apologies. Hoping to God I hadn't ruined our friendship with my kiss.

He stood from the couch and advanced on me as I backed away from him.

Finally backing me into a wall, he grasped my arms.

"Shut up Mark!" He growled in a husky voice. "You talk way too much!" Then he kissed me, crushing me against him, pushing his tongue into my mouth, duelling with mine.

Soon we were on the couch making love. Somehow we managed to get naked. Then using our hands and tongues and lips and friction we made each other scream in pleasure.

Afterwards, we wrapped ourselves around each other, staying like that until morning.

But, until the other night, we'd never penetrated each other, except with our fingers. After a couple of months I'd introduced Jason to the mysteries of the prostate, by asking his permission to insert a finger into him. With nervous hesitation he'd agreed, and I'd soon had him writhing in pleasure. Over the next few sessions I'd introduced two, then three fingers, getting him ready for taking my penis, as he became used to feeling fullness within him.

Sadly, it never happened. He was lost on the mission, then incarcerated and raped, and his first feeling of a penis buried inside of him was one of pain and horror, not pleasure and love. They stole that from him, and my God the bastards would pay for what they did.

My thoughts snapping back to the present, I realised I was nearing my objective. Gliding silently in I landed the plane on a flat piece of land a few kilometres off where I wanted to be, not wanting to be spotted from the base.

Taking my supplies, I trudged towards the base. It was getting dark by then, so waiting for a bit, I entered under the cover of darkness.

It was shockingly easy to get into the base. I moved silently from corridor to corridor, room to room, killing anyone I ran into silently and efficiently, laying charges as I went.

It didn't take me long to reach my objective, the main control room of the base.

Slipping inside, I killed the soldiers in there. So fast they had no idea what hit them.

Inserting a disc into the computer, I began downloading information about Spectra.

Maybe if I we were lucky, I figured that tonight's escapade might just give me the information we needed to end the war.

Anderson knew where I was tonight. I'm not stupid. If I want to continue to be the leader of G-Force, doing something like this behind his back was not the way to go about it.

I'd convinced him of the need to finish Jason's ill-fated assignment, and to take the base out this time, asking to do it alone. He'd finally agreed to the plan.

So, here I was, downloading information onto disc's, knee deep in bodies, and desperately hoping to get out alive.

Finally finished, I secured the discs into my belt pouch and moved around the room laying charges. Slipping out, I made my way back the way I'd come.

Halfway there an alarm sounded and troops began to mobilise, so I ran, desperate to escape.

Halfway along a corridor, gunfire erupted, spinning me back against the wall. I breathed a sigh of thanks that they weren't using cop killers, as the bullets slammed into my vest, knocking me to the floor. One whizzed through the flesh of my upper arm, nothing more than a flesh wound really, but it hurt like hell and my left arm went numb.

They ran up to me to see if I was dead. Leaping up I launched at them, fighting and slashing, my ribs cracked during the entanglement, and my left shoulder numbed, but I fought on.

In minutes they all lay dead around me and I took off at a dead run.

Somehow I made it out of the base alive, and began the explosive sequence as I fled the compound. Running to hide behind some rocks, I watched the base crumble, shooting some of the men as they tried to make their escape. Turning, I ran further away, back towards the plane. The base by now a burning crumbling wreak behind me.

Taking off into the air, I watched the base implode and looked for fleeing vehicles.

Seeing some, I transmuted into the G1 and dove on them, destroying them with my laser weapons. No one was escaping. Around and around I flew, watching the destruction, watching for survivors, determined no one should escape.

Finally, I flew over the base and dropped a few missiles into it, finishing it off completely. Then called in the Galactic forces to come in for the clean up.

They were waiting not far away for my signal.

Banking, I moved the plane away, and detransmuting, flew back towards my airfield and Jason.

*

Taxiing in I drew to a stop near the hanger.

Momentarily before leaving the plane I rested my head on my hands exhausted, a curious empty void feeling filling me.

Sensing Jason, I looked up and saw him standing not far away, leaning on his crutch, pain and fear written plainly in his eyes and body language, channelling through our bond.

I leapt down from the plane, and moved towards Jason, finally coming to a stop in front of him.

He peered at me, impassively noted the injuries, then moving his hand out slapped me, once, twice, three times, across the face, splitting my lip a little. I tasted blood.

"You fucking bastard." He yelled. "What the fuck was that? Are you trying to get yourself killed, or worse?" He shivered. "What if you'd been caught like me, and used like I was? Hey? How the fuck would I have lived with that, then?"

Not knowing what to say, I reached for him. "Jase, I..."

He moved away from me.

"Don't Mark! Don't even try..."

He turned and hobbled away from me, leaning heavily on the crutch. Then a few metres away, the crutch slipped to the ground and he sagged to his knees gasping out, his shoulders shaking as he buried his face in his hands.

Running over to him I dropped to my knees in front of him, and took his hands in my own. He allowed me to pull them away, and I could see then that he was crying.

He wouldn't look at me, his gaze cast down, he pleaded for answers.

"Why Mark? Please help me to understand?"

Clasping his hands, I held them tightly. "After what they did to you Jase, I had to do something to retaliate. Even not knowing you'd been raped."

He pulled his hands away from me. "How could you not know Mark? Don't tell me you waited for me to tell you? Jesus, the evidence was there, the injuries were there. Christ, you were there! You rescued me. You saw what condition I was in! How can you not have known? Even Princess and Tiny figured it out. Probably even Keop too. It was in all my medical reports. Didn't you, my husband, read them? You really have no excuses for not knowing, or realising, Mark."

He was right of course, and to my deep shame I could do nothing but admit that.

"Yes, you're right." I sighed heavily. "I think a part of me didn't want to know, so I blocked the idea out."

Jason finally peered up at me. "Ya know, Mark, I can't block it out, ever. You're the one I love and want to be with, I've needed you to try to understand what I've been and am going through, it's been tough these past weeks."

Taking him in my arms, I stroked his hair. "Yeah, I know, and I'm sorry love, please give me a chance to be better for you."

He shuddered in my grasp. "I don't know Mark, what you did today was horrifying, I woke up hours ago and when you weren't there went looking for you. Not finding you I realised where you'd possibly gone, so I called the chief, who confirmed you'd gone on a special assignment to the base to 'take it out,' he said."

Then he pushed against me. "Bastard! Did it occur to you I might want my own revenge after I'm better?"

To be honest it hadn't, and the look on my face probably told him so.

"I thought not." He muttered.

Then he grasped at me. "You could've been killed Mark... Jesus!"

I pulled him close to me. "But I wasn't Jase, I'm home, safe, the base is destroyed, everyone is dead, we can move on with things now."

He shook his head violently. "That's where you're wrong Mark, Zoltar is still out there, and the Luminous One, and let's not forget dear sweet Mala. It's not over until they are all destroyed. Besides, it will take me a long, long time to come to grips with what's happened to me, and I'm gonna need your help every step of the way, sweetheart."

Pulling Jason in close I tightened my hold around him, then pulling back bent my head to his for a kiss. For a moment he resisted, then he melted into my arms, allowing my tongue to glide in over his.

He trembled slightly.

Pulling away I looked down at him in concern. "Let's get back to the house. Can you walk?"

He nodded. Picking up his crutch, I helped him to his feet. His knees buckled under him, so I scooped him up in my arms, and carried him the rest of the way back inside.

Inside I dumped him on the bed and leaning in stole another kiss.

He pulled away from me when my hands began to wander over his body.

"Please Mark." He whispered. "Not tonight. Maybe not for a while. Not after last night and this morning. I need time before I can be physical again."

I gently nuzzled his hair, and nipped at an earlobe.

"No problem love, we have plenty of time for all the rest of it, all of our lives. I can wait."

He curled down on the bed and I curled up behind him.

"Just hold me, sweetheart." He whispered. "Just hold me..."

So I held him, stroking his hair and cheek, and whispering words of love in his ears until he fell asleep, a slight peaceful smile on his lips.

I know there's only one person I want to grow old with, and he's laying snuggled right here in my arms.

I will never let him go...

I will love him forever, no matter what...

Post Note: Oh... And you know what, that information I retrieved from the base ultimately 'did' lead to events that spelled the end of the war, and the end of Zoltar, his sister Mala, and the Luminous One also...

Perhaps God 'is' watching after all...

The End.

Coming Soon: JASON'S POV - Same story, Jason's point of view.