Hashim was bored out of his mind. Literally.
He was busy, idly constructing a simulacrum of a human body out of the blackness that he had formed for himself in the corner. It was hard. Being made of the absence of thought, it was incredibly difficult to force it to make any kind of defined shape.
Difficult, but not impossible, for Hashim at least. Manipulating his own mind was one of his greatest skills.
Then there was a word from Xavier.
Hashim didn't hear what it was. After all, he was doing the mental approximation of sitting in the corner facing the wall, precisely so that he wouldn't have to hear what Xavier was saying. There was an undertone to the words, of course, and that came across loud and clear, thanks to Jake beside him, translating the outside occurrences to his own language, the one he danced with whenever he talked to people.
Xavier and Jake were artists, Hashim grudgingly admitted. Artists of people's opinions. He recognized that, even if he didn't want to. The things that he had seen when time was slowed by his ability showed him just how complex and esoteric people and their emotions were. He didn't want to have to deal with it.
But did he really have to let Jake and Xavier do it? They were far too up-close for his liking. Why couldn't they remain at a distance and still influence things?
As he thought that, the word came.
And something was born.
The shape before him swirled in the blackness, something swishing around it. Then it flattened, a small shape looking up at him. A puppet.
No, not just a puppet. A form. A cloaked figure, smirking up at him. It reached out and grabbed something from Hashim, and then life flooded it, color following soon after.
The name came in Hashim's mind as it entered Abigail's.
Elias.
Hashim panicked briefly, pressing his awareness back out into where it belonged. He could see Abigail staring at him, her eyes wide.
Don't worry, Elias said in Hashim's mind and out loud at the same time. "I keep the beasts in check."
He was referring to the things in the Deep Consciousness.
But why was he telling Abigail that?
She had seen inside their mind.
Hashim was shocked. In that brief moment of being formed, being created, with Abigail's presence, Elias had touched her mind.
And he had brought her awareness, if only briefly, into theirs.
"Who are you?" Abigail asked, horrified.
"Elias," Elias answered, standing. "I'm going to be around from now on."
Abigail breathed out slowly.
Elias snapped his fingers, and he froze time.
A grin spread across his face.
Yes, this would work nicely.
He stood up, and stretched. Their muscles were slightly stiff, and he had never used them before.
Elias breathed out, then he strolled around the room, standing behind Abigail. As he did, time lurched back into motion suddenly.
Elias's body jerked, and he was barely able to keep himself from crying out. He hadn't expected that to be so sudden. He hadn't expected it to happen at all. It appeared that his ability had a time limit, and a rather firm one. Not only that, but he had depleted a lot of their energy. If Anguis hadn't suffused this room, he would probably have collapsed to the floor. Not only had it burned all of the massive energy that Elias had gathered over the short period that he had been in control, it had cut deeply into their body's store of energy, completely removing any excess mass and even forcing him to briefly atrophy his own muscles just to live the split second after time resumed, before his power generation kicked in and flooded him with energy.
Elias gasped in shock.
Jake's ability was twelfth tier, and even with him it was like the power of a god. Elias was even stronger.
Abigail jumped up, quickly twisting around. The urgency of her movement afforded her neither chance nor focus to keep herself upright, and she fell backwards. Elias reached out and grabbed her collar, meeting her eyes. He lifted her slowly up, his body straining imperceptibly at his deliberate slowness, until he set her on her feet.
"Hashim?" Abigail asked. Elias nodded. He wasn't, not really, but it was close enough.
He was something new entirely. Like the perfection of Regus, but instead of being drawn from someone who interacted with others, as Regus had been a fusion of Jake with Hashim, he was purely set apart.
He would take what he could and destroy what he had to.
And he was just in time for some real fun.