for it ain't so weird, how it makes you a weapon.

[therebelruns]

“Run, Lola. Run, fast!” Her mother’s voice echoes in her mind, it repeats over and over. She has to keep running.

Lola Hernandez runs through the forest. She dodges trees, leaping over bulks of undergrowth that threaten to catch her feet and make her trip and fall. She can’t let herself fall, she’ll break the fragile vials of morphine in her bag.

Comments

[averylongtime]

It's a city full of people from all walks of life-people who can speak all sorts of languages. That someone's calling for her mother in Spanish isn't surprising and shouldn't surprise him. Still, Richard turns to look at the girl...

And finds something to be completely surprised about.

“Hey!” he calls out, approaching her slowly with his hands raised. “Calm down. Put the gun down.”

[therebelruns]

Lola jumps at the sound of the voice and spins around to find the owner of it. If someone had called after her in English, she probably wouldn't have listened in her state. Maybe she still might be in Spain afterall?

However, she keeps the rifle held tightly in her trembling hands and aims it at him. "What's going on? What is this place?" she shouts at him.

Her voice is shaky at first, but a wave of anger takes over and she sounds a little more forecful. "Are you one of Franco's swine? Well!? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't shoot you like a dog!"

It's lines that Lola's rehersed so many times before. She's always tried to prepare herself for such situations, even if she'd never think she'd end up in something quite like this.

[averylongtime]

Franco's swine? As in...General Franco?

(One of the things he doesn't like to be reminded of are all the monsters who've lived and died in his extended time. Franco is one of them.)

“You're not where you think you are,” he says, too quickly, he thinks, and can't blame himself for it: yet again, someone's aiming a gun at him. This time he doesn't have one of Jacob's chosen to save him. “You've fallen through a rift. Please put the gun down, and I'll explain everything. I don't have any weapons on me. Do you want to check?”

(And really, it's fairly ridiculous how he's submitting himself to someone he could take, easily; but he's left far behind the life that required him to hurt children. He finds himself unwilling to do what he normally would have done without second thought.)

[therebelruns]

Don't worry, she'll be rather apologetic once she realises he's not.

Lola frowns at him, not understanding what he's saying. "What do you mean? Where am I?" She demands still with a panicked voice. She's reluctant to put the gun down. She's never shot anyone before, only practiced. She doesn't want to shoot him in particular, but she's too on edge to think about doing anything else.

She tilts her head to one side and narrows her eyes for a moment before nodding. "Fine. Put your hands behind your head and don't move a muscle. Or I will shoot you, alright?" She tells him as she cautiously edges towards him.

Lola's quick to pat him down, turning out his pockets and finding him unarmed. She steps away and points the gun away from him, but still keeps it in her hands, just incase. She's not angry anymore, just scared. "Okay... start explaining... what's going on?" she asks him, blinking back any tears.

[averylongtime]

He lets out a breath, somewhat relieved, somewhat anxious. The dangerous part's over. “You're in Chicago,” he says wearily. “In the year 2010. In Chicago. You've fallen through what they call a 'rift' in this world.”

He's not sure how to explain it to a frightened child without giving her a reason to shoot him.

[therebelruns]

Lola's not quite expecting that kind of explanation. She trembles on the spot for a few moments, she feels sick and slightly dizzy. "Where? I've never.. No.. thats not possible.." she utters weakly. She's never even left her own country before, she doesn't even know where Chicago is. "It's only 1942.."

She clutches her rifle tightly in her hands, panting gently and now silently crying. "I need to get the supplies to the others. Everyone's counting on me. My mother is counting on me.."

She just wants to go home and before she knows it, the rifle falls through her hands. Lola stands for a moment, looking down at her clenched hands. The rifle just went through her hands. "What the..." she goes to pick up the rifle, but can't. Her hands just go straight through the weapon and sink into the ground. "What's going on? I don't understand..."

[averylongtime]

Richard crouches down on one knee, moving the rifle to the ground between them. That way they can see where it is, and Richard won't have to worry about someone with anti-Wanderer sentiment taking the gun. This situation is hard enough as it is without the interference of Chicago's brutal social politics.

“I'm very sorry,” he says, voice and expression full of sadness and sympathy, “but you can't go home.”

[therebelruns]

Lola stares at him for a few moments in disbelief. No, this just can't be happening. Surely she can get back. Maybe she's dreaming. She hit her head in the forest and this is just a strange, strange dream. It's the only thing she can do to explain the not being able to grip the rifle. She feels uneasy as he shifts it, not wanting it to be too far from her.

She shakes her head, tears dribbling down her face. "No, I have to go home." she insists fiercely. "We have to keep fighting, so then Franco will be gone. And then my Father can be released from Prison. And things'll be better then. But I have to go. I can't let them win. I have to get back!"

Lola shakes her head again, "There's a way back, right? There has to be!" she hiccups violently and lets out a noisy sob and pinches her arm. "No. No.. wake up, I'm dreaming. Wake up..."

[averylongtime]

Richard stares at his hands uncomfortably. She's a strange child, not his, and a fighter, besides. And yet--

He closes his eyes and gingerly puts an arm on her shoulder.

“I'm sorry. There's no way back home,” he says, looking her in the eye sympathetically. He breaks eye contact for a second as he thinks. “But I can tell you Franco's gone by now. He lost.”

[therebelruns]

Lola bites down on her lip to suppress and almighty sob. But as he tells her there's no way back, she completely freaks out and lets out a horrible howl and bursts into more tears. "No.. But.. but I have to get back.." she cries.

Normally she'd feel very childish about crying as bad as this. She knows fine she looks a great deal younger than she actually is and she's not helping herself out. But right now, she doesn't care.

However, when he mentions Franco being gone, she manages to stop herself. "What? she hiccups, staring at him wide-eyed. "He lost? Did... did we kill him? We won?"

[averylongtime]

“He's gone,” is all Richard can bring himself to say. He can't say that Franco “lost” by having the misfortune of dying-that, all things considered, her side lost. But Franco isn't in power anymore. He's gone. That's something resembling the truth.

“Look, there's a place nearby where people like you-like me-can stay for free. It's called the Kashtta Tower. I can take you there if you'd like.”

[therebelruns]

Lola wipes furiously at her face with her hands, trying to clean herself up. She tries to calm herself with this. Franco's gone. It's over. The fight is over here. She hopes the bastard got what he deserved. If she's in the future, she can go and find out what happened to him.

"Like us?" she asks with a small sniffle and frowns, "Were you from someone else too? There's other people who come from somewhere else?"

She nods and looks up and around at the Chicago skyline. "Are all the buildings in this place all so... big? I've never been to 2010 before.."

[averylongtime]

“Not all of them are that big, but many of them are in this part of town,” he says, scanning the skyline with her. “Many of them were that big where I came from. My world wasn't much different from this one, and I wasn't from as far back in time as you.”

The truth, essentially, although it strikes him as ironic, the notion that he isn't “as far back in time” as she is.

“There are a lot of people like us here. They call us 'Wanderers'. We've all been pulled into this world by one of the rifts.” He pauses, here, looking at her hands and the rifle. “The rift...does something to us when we come through. Gives us power. I can generate fire. It looks like it's given you something, too. That's why you can't pick up your gun.”

[therebelruns]

Lola nods at this, still in a little awe, "I live in the forest, with the other rebels. And my mother... but even in my home city, there wasn't many big buildings. They look... overwhelming," She can't really bring herself to say that in past tense. She won't be living in a forest anymore, but she doesn't want to accept that just yet.

She reaches down to try and pick up the rifle again as she listens, watching as they sink right through the metal and wood. Lola keeps trying, growing more frustrated by it. "I don't like this power..." she answers with a scowl. "I wish I could make fire instead, like you. That sounds a great deal better than going through things..."

And she suddenly grows worried, if she's gone through a rift and changed. Is she still the same person. "Wait?!" She looks up at him in shock, "Will I still be an angel? When I'm sixteen? Both my parents are angels, but even though I'm here and I have this power - will I still be one too?"

[averylongtime]

He blinks at this. “You're an angel?” It's surprising to him, at first, but his mind quickly begins to think, to recall-yes, he's heard that some of the Wanderers in this Chicago are from other versions of this same world. She could be one of them.

“--if you are, I think you should be fine. A lot of angels live in this city, too.”

[therebelruns]

Lola nods and offers her first smile since arriving here.Being an angel one day is one of the few things she's happy about herself with, she actually can't wait till she changes. Then she knows she'll be able to make a real difference. "Yes.. or, I will be in a couple of years time,"

She breathes a sigh of relief and wipes at her eyes again. "That's good. If I'm still going to be one - then I think I'll be alright here," Her eyes widen at this, "There are? Lots? Really? I never got to meet many back home, Mama said that most angels didn't want to concern themselves with the human's wars since angels always seemed to be at war anyways."

Her next question seems like a strange one, but to her - it's only natural to ask. "Is there a war here too?"