The Clinic - Tuesday Night, Fandom Time/Thursday Night, Marvel Time
Emma's parents had always politely referred to it as 'The Clinic.' The Snow Valley Pavilion for the Mentally Disturbed.
But it was an asylum, an exclusive place where wealthy families sent their bulimic daughters or chronically depressed sons to sit in their cells and linger in a litium haze. Where child rebels were narcotized and counter-narcotized into uselessness and good behaviour.
And in the case of the Frost family, where they had sent their gay, drug-addicted son waste away years before, and now it was the turn for rebellious, crazy little Emma who'd had the voices in her head.
Jack Priest
Jack wasn't going to do anything so obvious as sneaking. One of Sebastien's rules was that if you looked like you belonged, you were less likely to be questioned. The side door was unlocked, and in his neat jacket he'd pass for an office intern.
He still couldn't eradicate the worry in his eyes. "Can anyone tell if Emma's really here, or if we're just chasing wild geese?"
Alex Karev
"I'm no help," Alex said, rubbing a hand across his eyes and frowning. "My usual methods of finding Emma are her finding me so that's not gonna work right now. Fuck."
Peter Bishop
Peter amazingly bit back a snarky comment and looked over in the direction of the girls. "I'm hoping one of you two can help here, because I certainly can't, either."
Karla
Karla closed her eyes and put her hand on the wall of the building. And flinched. "She's been here, at least," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "Her psychic scent's here." Once again, she thanked the Darkness that Emma was so powerful, it meant her scent lingered and stood out in places she'd been. "I can't figure out if she's still here or just came and left, but there should be traces of her, at least."
That much accomplished, Karla snatched her hand from the wall like it burned and stepped back a few paces. If Winston had put his daughter in a place like this, she was going to go back to the Frost residence and peel his brain like a grape.
Alex
"Okay, so the address I got wasn't me getting jerked around," Alex said and silently thanked Emma's sister. "So, we gotta get in there. Standing out here and knowing she might be in there isn't gonna help us."
Emma
Emma was hungry.
They'd finally taken away the straight-jacket and given her a blanket and pillow, once they determined she wasn't going to hurt herself, and she was currently curled up in it, hiding from the lights and the voices. Trying to ignore how cold she felt.
needtogetcasey'spillscan'teatorI'llgetfatIjustwanttocutuntilitstopshurtingneedfixneedfixohgodIwantasmokeIjustneedonemorehitandthenIcanquitIhateherI'mgoingtostabhereyeswhenshe'sasleep...she bit back a sob and put her hands over her ears, squeezing her eyes shut as if that would make it all go away.
Guard
"Well now, look who's learned to be a good pretty girl," a voice said, and Emma peeked out from under her blanket to see one of the guards, her dinner tray and medications in one hand. "They're sayin' you ain't kicked anyone all day. You did bite Mike, but, well, we can't expect miracles and he did botch that shot."
Emma
Emma didn't answer; just stared at him until he put the tray down on the little desk they'd let her have. They'd bolted it to the floor, and the chair was locked into sliders on the floor, but at least it was something else to look at.
Guard
"Creeper," he muttered, trying to shake off the feel of her eyes on his skin. The Frost girl was a strange one, sane or not, and it grated on him that they hadn't been allowed yet to teach her a real lesson.
Except that gave him an idea, and he turned to shut the door behind himself before turning back to the tray and adding a few extra pills to the pile he'd already counted out for her. "So, you gonna keep being good and take your meds or not?"
Emma
Emma drew her lips back in a silent snarl, giving her opinion of that idea. She was still lucid enough to understand that the pills made the voices worse, not better, and like he'd said - she'd still bitten Mike. If he tried to shove them down her throat, she'd do the same to him.
Guard
"Oh, good." Something about that smile made her heart sink into her chest. "That means we get to do this the hard way, and guess what, Princess? I'm the only one on the floor for the next two hours.
Emma
His smile grew, and she knew. She could hear everything, knew exactly how he planned to spend the next hour and a half, and how much he wanted to hurt her. How much he was going to enjoy hurting her, hurting them, and how he thought she would scream very prettily and --
Nononononononononono
"NO!"
Guard
His eyes rolled back in his head as he seized up, a strangling, gurgling sound coming from his throat as he spasmed uncontrollably.
A moment later and it was over as he thudded to the floor, eyes still glowing the same red as Emma's. It had been quick, but it had not been painless.
Emma
A heart beat. Two. Three. She stared at him sightlessly, all the voices in her head clamouring for attention until she found some sort of consensus among them all.
<< Take me out of here. >>
Guard
He lurched to his feet and took staggering steps toward her, reaching down to pick her up very gently before turning towards the door to her cell.
The door made a strange groan, a twisted shrieking of metal and glass before shattering completely and he stepped through the broken frame, his precious cargo riding on his shoulder.
Emma
Out. They would go out. That was the only thought on her mind. She didn't even notice objects shattering as they walked past, or the psionic energy licking about her hands and along the rest of her body. Lightbulbs exploded overhead, showering the area in sparks. Sparks that became little fires, where they burned the walls and floor. Little fires that joined together to become bigger ones, quickly spreading through the air ducts.
Not that she cared. All that mattered was Out, and woe be to anyone who got in their path.
Karla
Parts of the hospital were nice; the parts that the families would see, the rooms with wide open windows and comfortable furniture, where concerned members could visit their imprisoned loved ones and be comforted that they were being taken care of.
Those cheerful and comfortable rooms were far away from here, where the patients truly lived.
Karla glided down the hallway, barely aware of the commotion around her. She was focused on one thing: finding Emma and getting her away from this place. Forget sneaking. Forget stealth. The air around the cells practically stank of fear and pain and nightmares lingered in the wall.
She'd known a place like this once. The uncles had called it Briarwood.
Patient
"No! No! Don't touch me!" A woman's shriek echoed down the hallway. "Leave me alone! Don't touch me! Don't touch me!"
Karla
Karla barely had time to pull up a sight shield before they screaming woman turned the corner. For a moment, she'd seen only the blond hair over the white paper gown and had thought it was Emma being half-dragged, half-carried by a dark-haired orderly. Sapphire energy had crackled around her hand before she realized, no, it was another female being manhandled.
To act, or not to?
Patient
"Help me!" The girl screamed, trying to kick at the nurse holding her. Her eyes seemed to lock onto Karla's even through the shield. "Don't let him put me back there! She's coming! She's coming and we're all going to die! Help me!"
The orderly swept by Karla's spot in the hallway without blinking twice, his whole attention on the struggling girl in his arms. "Stop freaking out!" he yelled right into her ear, before almost dropping her onto the ground in front of a small wooden door. "Shut up, all right? Just shut up!"
The girl began fighting in earnest then, diving towards Karla with a hand outstretched. The orderly snagged her by the waist, knocking the wind out of her and hauling her back.
"A little help here?!" he yelled. "Natives are getting really restless!"
Assistant Nurse
At his yell, another woman came rushing down the corridor from behind her. "Yes, yes, I'm here!" she said impatiently, getting out a keycard and swiping it across a little white box mounted on the wall. "You're not the only one having trouble with them, Sal! The whole ward is insane tonight!"
The door opened with a click of moving mechanisms and Sal practically tossed his patient inside. She hit the ground in a roll and came right back up on her feet. "Don't let them trap me in here with her!" she screamed, staring past the nurses back at Karla. "Don't let them kill me!"
Sal & Nurse Assistant
"What the hell is she going on about?" the female nurse asked.
"How should I know?" Sal retorted. "I don't speak crazy!"
"We're going to have to sedate her." Pulling out a bottle of pills from her pocket, the nurse shook a few out into her hand and entered the room, Sal close behind. The patient tried to get away, but the room wasn't very big and they soon had her backed into a corner. After getting her to dry swallow several of the pills, they sat the girl on her bed and then left the room.
"Come on," the female nurse ordered as the door swung shut behind them. "There are reports of a fire or something in Section D. We're needed."
The Girl
As soon as their footsteps faded down the hallway, the patient came over to the door, pressing her face against the tiny window.
"You're still there..." she said. "I can still feel you. The air's disrupted around you."
Karla
Karla blinked in shock and moved closer to the door. "You can sense me?" she asked. "Are you a mutant?"
The Girl
"Says the invisible girl." She snorted and made a few retching noises, her face disappearing from the window. "There," she said with a hint of satisfaction. "They made sure I swallowed but didn't stay long enough to make sure I kept them down. Fools."
She appeared again, her eyes uncannily following Karla's every move. "Are you getting out of here? Take me with you. I don't want her to kill me. And she will, if we don't get out. She's crazy enough to kill everyone."
Karla
"Who will?" Karla asked. "Who's going to kill you? I'll get you out, keep you safe, but I'm not leaving here until we find a friend of mine."
If there was some psychopath in the asylum with Emma, it just made it that much more important that they get her out.
The Girl
"Just let me out of here and I'll make it out on my own," the girl said. "I don't want to wander around this place with her on the loose. She really is crazy. She makes the air around her go all fuzzy and weird. It hurts my head and gave me a nosebleed." She glanced down the hall in either direction and shook her head. "I think she's why everything is so crazy tonight. But I'd rather get out of here than wait around to say 'thank you.'"
She stiffened. "Something's wrong with the air. It's getting more distorted. I think the fires are spreading. Get me out of here, now!"
Karla
If the clinic was on fire, Karla wasn't going to waste any more time trying to ask questions. A shock of Sapphire energy had the wall on the box hissing sparks and smoke and the mechanism within the doors disengaged. She yanked the door open.
"Hey, thanks--" Karla didn't give the girl time to finish. Instead, she grabbed for her hand and projected an image of Emma directly into her mind's eye.
"This is my friend. Have you seen her?" she asked. "I've got to find her."
The Girl
The girl gasped and flung herself backwards, whether from shock or the intrusion of her mind. "That's her," she moaned. "Her! The one who is coming for all of us! You're friends with her?! Don't hurt me! Leave me alone!"
Karla
"Neither of us is going to hurt you!" Karla snapped. "But I have to find her! I can calm her down, keep her safe! Keep you all safe! But I have to know where she is!"
The Girl
"That way! She's that way!" the girl said, pointing in the direction the orderlies had gone. "She's doing things--I can feel them! Just let me go!" She whined deep in her throat and tried to pull her hand out of Karla's grip, her back pressed tightly against the wall. "Please, I just want to go!"
Karla
Karla released her instantly, an apologetic expression flitting across her face. "Go," she whispered. "Help anyone out that you can."
Visibly steeling herself, she touched the walls again and concentrated, making the walls glow blue for a minute before all the little white boxes on the walls began to malfunction. Doors began to slowly open as pale, frightened faces peeked out.
"You help these people," Karla ordered the girl. "You get them all out, you hear me? No one deserves to be stuck in here like this."
The Girl
"What kind of mutant are you?" the girl whispered.
Karla
"I'm a witch," Karla said with a shrug. "And I'm here to find my friend. Now get these people out of here."
And then she was running down the hallway, ignoring anything that wasn't Emma Frost.
Sookie
Sookie's anxiety was reaching a peak, and it didn't help that she'd pulled her shields down to search for Emma's brain through the commotion. Her skin glowed, flickering as she tried to subdue it, to keep the inmates' emotions from affecting her powers, and her fingertips blazed purple.
She didn't strike yet. She was too busy searching, static crackling through her hair.
Dark-haired Patient
One of the patients managed to catch sight of Sookie and whimpered, drawing in on herself. "Monsters," she cried, curling up protectively. "I was bad, and now there's monsters. This is hell."
Sookie
Sookie's heart broke a little, hearing that, and the sparks in her hands instantly disappeared. "Not monsters, darling," she said softly, keeping a fair distance from the girl. Her skin still glowed a soft gold, her palms taking up the same color for a moment. She could feel Claudine watch her, even if she hadn't shown herself here. "And this isn't hell. No one is going to hurt you."
Dark-haired patient
"Right. So long as we eat our portions and take our pills, you won't hurt us," she bit out. "When the lights go down, that's when the screams start, and you know the monsters are out."
She looked pointedly at Sookie's hands. "Did you start the fire? Good."
Sookie
"This is your chance," Sookie said quietly. "Run away from here, from the monsters. Show them you don't need your pills. No one is going to hurt you. I'm not a monster, but I know you're surrounded by them. This is your chance to leave."
Dark-haired Patient
Right, now the girl was staring at Sookie. "Changed my mind. You aren't a monster; you have got to be one of my stupider pill-induced hallucinations," she sighed. "None of us have anywhere else to go."
Still, she headed towards an exit door, one not being mobbed by the more panicked residents. "I think I'll just go watch the fire. Maybe if I'm lucky, I won't have here to go to either."
Sookie
"This is your shot to run, sweetheart," Sookie called softly. "I've got some cash, if you need a way to get away. Find a hotel. Get a job, get off the pills. I'm not a hallucination, or a monster. I'm not anything from your world. Don't give in like that."
Peter
Peter wanted to just head straight to find Emma, but the instant he was aware the building was on fire, evacuating the place seemed a good idea too.
Of course, trying to help inmates out of a place like this was liable to bring the wrong attention...
Nurse
"You there!" one of the nurses shouted, looking harried. "What are you doing in your street clothes? I don't care if you're off-shift, get in uniform, quick, and sedate as many of them as you can. I don't want a panic."
Peter
"So we're going to sedate the people in the burning building instead of getting them out of the building?" Peter said, not liking the sound of that.
Nurse
"Do you want to be in charge of them outside when one decides to have a manic episode, or if a group of them get it into their heads to bolt?" she snapped. "It'll be easier to herd them outside and get them to stay quiet if you give them a sedative first."
Peter
"I'll be in charge," Peter said. "Let's just get them out. Better to have some run away then to have any die."
He was very insistent in his tone.
Nurse
"What, you think we won't have a few accidental overdoses or suicides this week if we get them all out?" she scoffed. "But fine. Herd them out, but don't loose any. If this gets in the paper, they'll fire all of us."
Peter
Peter didn't care if they all got fired.
"Perfect," Peter said. "Now how about you start helping them get out of the building too."
If she said no, he was willing to scare her out of the building.
Nurse
"I'm getting their charts," she snapped, looking at Peter as if he was a moron. "Most of them aren't cognizant enough to know their own names, let alone what their allergies are."
"Just get them moving, orderly. Here -" she unhooked a large keyring from her waist, and handed it over with her keycard. "Since you don't have your ID on you, that'll get you into the secure sections. Someone needs to let the crazies out, too."
Peter
"I'll get my uniform on right away," he said, taking the keyring and instantly booking it to the more secure areas.
Jackpot.
Jack
The scent of smoke stung Jack's eyes and throat. He ignored it. Helping Emma didn't seem within his grasp at the moment, but there were plenty of other people who didn't deserve to be burned alive.
Michelle, Ward Nurse
"Hurry up!" The girl with the brown ponytail seemed actually worried as she tried shepherding her charges out. "That's right, a nice line, but you all need to move a little faster."
She was trying to help along a thin, tired-looking girl, who appeared to have barely enough energy to walk. The look she threw Jack was 'little help, please?'
Jack
Nodding in understanding, Jack offered his arm to the tired girl, taking a few slow steps toward the way out. "It's all right," he said. "We just need to go a bit more this way."
Michelle
"Thank you," the nurse breathed, mistaking Jack for one of the administration assistants. "This is the last of my group, all the eating disorder kids are accounted for."
She shifted her hold on her charge, sticking out a hand. "Michelle. I'm the evening nutrition nurse."
Jack
"Jack," Jack said lightly, taking the hand in his free one. Usually he would have trotted out an alias, but the chance someone would call him by name was simply too high. "They sent me by to find an Emma Frost, but I don't think she'd be in with the bulimics. Besides, it's not exactly a convenient time for an appointment..."
Michelle
"Frost?" Michelle shook her head. "Sorry, not one of mine. I'd ask if you knew what ward, but..." she gestured to the surrounding chaos. "Hopefully she's not there at the moment."
Jack
"I'm sure the ward's somewhere in my notes, but I don't know off the top of my head," Jack admitted. "With any luck, she's been evacuated, either way. I'm just glad I can help a little."
Michelle
"You could try going around to the left, there's an arbor under the skyway that connects to the other building," she said, pointing. "It will take you to the other side without trying to circle everything with these hills."
"Be careful. The fire department is on their way, and I don't want them to pull you out in the morning, Jack-from-Admin."
Jack
"I can definitely think of better ways to spend my night," Jack said, managing not to shudder as he went in the direction she pointed with a certain philosophical sway to his steps. He hadn't helped Emma, but he'd gotten out in one piece, and without making anything worse.
He could only hope his cohorts had better luck.
Alex
Considering how heavy of a smoker he was, the smell of smoke didn't immediately bother him. When it got stronger and sharper, then he was covering his mouth with his hand and squinting so he wouldn't end up dead of smoke inhalation.
Leaning against the wall, Alex tried to see through the smoke to some place Emma might be. He coughed and considered quitting smoking after this.
Orderly
To the orderly, Alex looked like every other trouble-making teenager that had been shoved in this place.
"Come on, hot shot," he growled, grabbing his shoulder to shove him along. "It's time for an extra walk on the grounds."
Alex
"Oh buddy, touching me is not allowed," Alex said, aiming a kick towards the orderly's instep so his giant meat paw would remove itself from his shoulder. "I only let girls do that and even then, they gotta be nice."
Orderly
Fuck, that hurt. "Are you seriously giving me a problem? Right now?" he yelled, moving to grab Alex again and haul him out by an arm. "You make this a pissing contest, tough guy, and we'll sedate you."
Alex
"The last fucker who put his hands on me never came back after I beat the shit out of him," Alex warned, trying to shove the point of his elbow into this dude's gut.
This reminded him of his dad all over again and he was not letting himself get the shit kicked out of him like that ever again.
Orderly
"Gee, wonder why you're here instead of juvie," the orderly taunted. "Daddy haul you out of trouble again?"
Rich kids. Most of these little punks would straighten up just fine if their parents weren't so damned lazy. "Move it, punk, or I'll leave you to burn with the rest of the crazies down in isolation."
Alex
"No, Daddy used to beat the shit out of me," Alex said, trying to twist out of the grip of the hulking mass of meat. Without even thinking about, Alex tried to kick at the orderly's knee to either break it or bend it or do something.
All he knew was that he was not letting his guy drag him somewhere.
Orderly
Something crunched and he doubled-over, letting Alex go and howling in pain.
"If you thought daddy was bad, we're going to pound you until you think he's Mother Teresa," he spat. "Let's see how you like a few days in isolation, once they get the fire out."
That was when he noticed something rather important - being crippled with pain meant you looked down, and when you looked down, you saw things. This kid was wearing real shoes, not the standard safe-slippers given to the patients.
"Fuck! Guys! Someone! We got an intruder over here!"
Alex
"Goddammit! Can't you be quiet?" Alex asked, glaring angrily down at the crumpled guard. He wasn't going to stick around to have someone else try and grab at him so as soon as he was loose, he took off, still trying to find wherever Emma was.
Poor orderly could nurse his broken leg and Alex was so making Emma buy him so many drinks when they found her. When. He had to think that way.
Emma Grace Frost
'Take me out of here,' she had whispered, and He obeyed. She paid no attention to the broken and bleeding bodies as she drifted past; heedless of the destruction she was leaving in her wake, psionic energy leaping and coiling about her, objects twisting and collapsing in on themselves. Lights flickered and then exploded around her, causing small electrical fires that grew and spread.
Out.
And woe be to those that got in her way.
Peter
Peter wasn't even going to wait for anyone else. He spotted her, and he was definitely worried. Swallowing that little voice that told him it was a bad idea, he ran up, and he tried to grab her shoulder.
"Emma," he said, strength in his voice if not in his mind.
Emma
Male. Assertive.
No.
She responded by bringing up a hand to shove him away by the chest. Only instead of Emma's normal strength behind it, there was a sudden burst of telekinesis, propelling him back and away from her.
Peter
Back and into a wall. There was a loud crack, as bone broke and then his skull collided with the structure.
He slumped down, barely conscious, bleeding from where his forehead had collided with the wall, his head swimming from the pain of the arm that he couldn't move.
"...that didn't go as planned," he said, weakly.
Emma
Something flickered in her eyes, then, and she turned back to face him.
There was something there, a twinge, something fighting for control behind her blank gaze as she regarded him. He was like a music box song that she did not quite remember, or a dream that wasn't quite real.
In the end, it wasn't quite enough to pull her back to reality. The blankness reasserted itself and she moved on, leaving him behind her.
Karla
Karla had been slowed by the necessity of dealing with a few fires, orderlies, and some patients that had required her attention, concern, and, once or twice, sheer brute force. She knew she was close. She still couldn't feel Emma, but the knot of agony and terror was growing closer as she ran.
Skidding around another corner, she slammed into a gibbering nurse. Karla wheeled and managed to stay upright, but the nurse crumpled where she'd stood, barely resisting. "Are you all right?" Karla asked, reaching over to help the woman back up. "Look, you need to get out of he--"
Nurse!
The nurse screamed. And pointed. And then went slack-jawed and limp, like a marionette with all its strings cut.
Karla
Karla slowly turned around. And there, behind her...
"Emma."
Hell's fire, Mother Night, and may the Darkness have mercy.
Emma
Darkness have mercy indeed, because Emma would not.
She didn't even register that Karla was there, nor did her hulking guard. The moment she made a hostile move, that might change, but for now, Emma was hunting those that hurt the children.
Karla
"Emma!"
Karla could understand how the patient she'd seen before had believed that Emma was crazy, that she was going to kill them all. Karla was looking at her and saw nothing: no sanity, no spark of recognition, not even a hint of the friend she'd come to love over the past two years.
*Emma!*
Emma
She stopped and cocked her head for a moment, as if listening, and then continued on, the objects around Karla breaking and popping like soda cans crumpling in an invisible fist.
Two more orderlies charged around the corner, and pink lightning eerily similar to Sookie's streamed from her hands, felling them before her minion could get close enough to bash their heads in.
She continued on, paying no heed to the bodies as she walked past. Out, and hurting those that hurt the children. That was all that mattered now, and then everything would burn.
Sookie
And the funny thing about that pink lightning is that Sookie recognized it all the way from where she was. "Emma!" she screamed, running over in a mad dash, her voice hoarse as her palms shone a hot fuchsia, her skin glowing golden. "Karla? Is she -- "
<< Is she there? >> she asked, switching over and staring at the husk of what was once their friend. Her mind raced with the images of what Raven had planted of her future self, the merciless fairy-queen who no longer understood human pain.
These weren't people, or things. These were obstacles. Emma seemed like everything she feared she'd become, herself, which somehow made it more terrifying.
Karla
*I...don't think so,* Karla sent, with a quick shake of her head. She didn't take her eyes off Emma as she did so. *I keep trying to reach her and I'm only getting power and rage. It's terrifying.*
Sookie
<< Her mind hurts, >> Sookie agreed, seeking out for a second. << All blacks and reds and anger. >>
A pause, as she stared at Emma, trying to see any trace of her friend in there.
<< We have to stop her. I'm just scared to break her. >>
Karla
*If we try to stop her, she's going to perceive us as a threat,* Karla cautioned. *And if she does and we have to fight her off, we might end up hurting her just to keep her from hurting us!*
But what else could they do? They couldn't just leave her like this.
*I can start by trying to trap her in a shield?*
Sookie
<< So she can't hit us? >> Sookie asked, nodding. << I can try and soothe her mind, or...put her to sleep, or something. >>
A little turn of the tables, there.
Karla
*Perhaps this'll work better if we get her outside first?* Karla suggested. *She may feel less trapped that way, less willing to lash out.*
She slowly began keeping pace with Emma's guard, not willing to let them get out of sight. Darkness only knew what havoc their presence might prevent.
*Plus, you know, fire,* she added, after a haze of smoke gave her a coughing fit.
Emma
Emma paused momentarily when she realized she as being shadowed, but once she determined the girls were not a threat, she moved on. Things still sparked and creaked dangerously, but so far she had not turned on her new honor guard.
Sookie
Sookie yanked her shirt up over the lower half of her face, using her brain more than her eyes to follow Emma and her guard through the haze.
She missed Bobby pretty hard right then, for a number of reasons, though chief on her mind was the fire.
<< What's going to happen to that guy, when she stops what she's doing to him? >> she asked, having guessed what was up there.
Karla
*Depends on how much of him is left when she's done,* Karla sent, mental voice grim. *I don't think she was really up for subtle, so she might just have...overwritten whatever she wanted.*
Which, honestly, was kind of best-case-scenario. If Emma were simply impatient, there might be large sections of his mind untouched. If Emma had decided to be thorough... well, the male would end up back in an asylum like this one, but it wouldn't be as a guard anymore.
Seeing a large door marked 'Exit' ahead of them, Karla took a gamble and started weaving soothing spells around it, anchoring them to the door frame. She was too wary to try to start casting on Emma directly, but a spell that was tied to something else might escape her notice.
Emma
It felt like singing, almost. As if there was a song under her skin.
She turned slowly towards the door, drawn by something she couldn't quiet recognize. It felt right, familiar, and not like this place. And step by step, it drew her closer until she had her hand pressed flat against the door.
She stood, looking at it for a moment until her gaze shifted slightly towards Karla, as if she connected the feel of the door to the girl, and the door shattered outward, blown right off its hinges.
Karla
*Well, that's a good sign,* Karla said with a purely mental sigh.
Yes, sarcasm was a perfectly acceptable response to being stuck inside a burning asylum with a homicidal version of one of her closest friends.
Hmmm...closest friend...that gave her the start of an idea.
*Sookie. Do you think you can force a psychic link to her?*
Sookie
<< I can certainly try, >> Sookie replied warily, trying not to let her fear take hold right now. This called for the telepath, not the fairy, and magic fuel of her anger had no place here.
But damn. Emma had just blown a door off. That was, to put a term to it, some scary shit.
Sookie closed her eyes for half a breath, drawing her strength and focus into her mind before flashing her eyes open and reaching out to lock onto Emma's brain. The link wasn't in place yet -- Sookie was just pressing forward with her mind, steadily so as not to startle her into further violence -- and letting herself into the spindly blurs of red and black.
<< I feel like I'm at a rodeo. >>
Which was probably about as appropriate as sarcasm, all things considered.
Karla
*I'll take your word for it,* Karla sent. *When you're ready, I want you to send Emma every memory you have of her. I'll do the same through the link I have with you. If she can't remember who and what she is, we're going to forcibly remind her.*
Though this would probably work better with more people.
*Let me see if I can't find Jack, Alex, and Peter and loop them in, too,* she added.
She dropped her link with Sookie for a moment. She was juggling enough with trying to get a lock on Emma, she didn't need Karla yelling in her head on top of all that.
*Hey!* Karla had no problems finding the minds of the three boyos they had brought with them--though some of the signals she was picking up from Peter had her worried. She gathered their minds in a loop and reestablished a link with Sookie. *As soon as Sookie says she's ready, I'm going to need everyone to dig up as many memories as they have of Emma as possible. The more vivid, the better! Good, bad, I don't care, just anything to remind Emma who she is!*
Sookie
And with a final push, Sookie was in. Her mind fit against Emma's snugly, and for a moment, Emma's rage threatened to crash against Sookie. She glowed gold, her skin shining out in a burst before subduing as Sookie took control of the link.
<< Ready, >> she called through the link, her mental voice taut with strain of the bond. And with that word, she called up every memory she held of Emma -- happy and sad alike.
Emma taking her shopping, and the two of them scolding Karla about hemlines. French Club meetings, with Emma's deprecation of her accent. Christmas in Bon Temps. A million little mental threads, each of them infused with the warmth that Sookie felt at finally finding a place with other telepaths.
Emma had been her first friend like her, in Fandom. She had been the one to show her how freakish they weren't.
She couldn't lose her now.
Alex
Alex figured he could do this. He couldn't read minds or throw people into walls with telekinesis but he could do this. Once he got the go ahead to start thinking, he did.
Some of them were dirty (he couldn't help it, they were good memories) like teasing each other with naughty mental images in class, having fun in a stock room during Thanksgiving dinner, having her throw him a birthday party with Rose, multiple conversations in the shadows at dances and the relief and comfort he felt when she'd offered to help him with his family.
He gathered all that up and sent it.
Jack
Jack took a moment to sort through his thoughts, then the memories came fast and furious.
Flowers in a class on flirting. A kiss he'd pulled back from. Kisses he hadn't pulled back from. Play rehearsals. Dances. A smirking little daughter with blonde braids. A date in their last moments before he left the island. Meeting Hank. Encountering Emma's sister -- and comforting her after. A bitter argument at Homecoming. On and on it went, some beauty and some horrible pain, everything that made him and Emma a pair. He finished with two things that didn't seem like they went with the rest -- a middle-aged couple sharing a drink at a reunion, and a little boy and little girl feeding playful ducklings.
He stopped there, almost shaking. Let me know if you need more.
Peter
Even if he was bleeding, slumped against the ground, and scared out of his mind, there was one thing he could do at that moment, and that was remember the Emma Frost he, against all better notions, probably loved.
The singular girl that challenged him in every way. The memories of the softer moments, the sweeter moments, and oddly a memory of friendship that seemed to come not from the past, but the future.
The not-a-monster in his bed. The homecoming queen.
The young woman that had kept him from leaving Fandom behind when he'd turned eighteen.
That was the Emma he knew, and that he remembered at that very moment with all his might.
Emma
Emma had barely stepped through the door to the outside when Sookie's link had engaged, and she staggered forward, overwhelmed by the impact of these new - strong - presences in her head.
Her hold on the guard dissipated, and crumpled to the ground, unconscious. He'd be fine in the morning - unfortunately - save for the raging headache and no memory of the last week, and an unfortunate nervous tick.
She fell to her knees as she tried to sort through the input. Lucidity was fighting against the drugs they'd pumped into her, and she cried, the first sound she'd made in days beyond the single 'no' earlier.
Karla
While everyone else had been sending strong memories of love and friendship and anger and hurt, buffeting Emma with reminders of who she was and why they were fighting to reach her, Karla had been busy slipping under Emma's defenses.
*I love you, Ems,* she sent. *You can thank me for this later.*
Or hit her, possibly, because this was going to hurt.
With the Craft that was her birthright, Karla burned away the drugs in Emma's system, ripping them from blood and flesh and brain, removing the residue of every pill and injection they'd pumped her with. Emma's body lit up with Sapphire light as Karla cleansed her, like a beacon in the night.
Emma
Emma screamed.
It hurt like nothing she'd ever experienced in her life, like someone was ripping out every single nerve from her body and then stitched back together. Her own psionic firelight flickered and died abruptly as terror and sanity swept across her face.
And then Emma clutched at her stomach and threw up. Repeatedly.
[OOC: Cut for violence, NPC abuse, disturbing images, etc. Preplayed with my fantastic cast, who helped me bring Emma's original origin from Generation X #24 into Fandom High canon. Oh, and shamelessly rip off a little bit of Endsong for the end. I feel no guilt. NFI, NFB, OOC = OK.]
But it was an asylum, an exclusive place where wealthy families sent their bulimic daughters or chronically depressed sons to sit in their cells and linger in a litium haze. Where child rebels were narcotized and counter-narcotized into uselessness and good behaviour.
And in the case of the Frost family, where they had sent their gay, drug-addicted son waste away years before, and now it was the turn for rebellious, crazy little Emma who'd had the voices in her head.
Jack Priest
Jack wasn't going to do anything so obvious as sneaking. One of Sebastien's rules was that if you looked like you belonged, you were less likely to be questioned. The side door was unlocked, and in his neat jacket he'd pass for an office intern.
He still couldn't eradicate the worry in his eyes. "Can anyone tell if Emma's really here, or if we're just chasing wild geese?"
Alex Karev
"I'm no help," Alex said, rubbing a hand across his eyes and frowning. "My usual methods of finding Emma are her finding me so that's not gonna work right now. Fuck."
Peter Bishop
Peter amazingly bit back a snarky comment and looked over in the direction of the girls. "I'm hoping one of you two can help here, because I certainly can't, either."
Karla
Karla closed her eyes and put her hand on the wall of the building. And flinched. "She's been here, at least," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "Her psychic scent's here." Once again, she thanked the Darkness that Emma was so powerful, it meant her scent lingered and stood out in places she'd been. "I can't figure out if she's still here or just came and left, but there should be traces of her, at least."
That much accomplished, Karla snatched her hand from the wall like it burned and stepped back a few paces. If Winston had put his daughter in a place like this, she was going to go back to the Frost residence and peel his brain like a grape.
Alex
"Okay, so the address I got wasn't me getting jerked around," Alex said and silently thanked Emma's sister. "So, we gotta get in there. Standing out here and knowing she might be in there isn't gonna help us."
Emma
Emma was hungry.
They'd finally taken away the straight-jacket and given her a blanket and pillow, once they determined she wasn't going to hurt herself, and she was currently curled up in it, hiding from the lights and the voices. Trying to ignore how cold she felt.
needtogetcasey'spillscan'teatorI'llgetfatIjustwanttocutuntilitstopshurtingneedfixneedfixohgodIwantasmokeIjustneedonemorehitandthenIcanquitIhateherI'mgoingtostabhereyeswhenshe'sasleep...she bit back a sob and put her hands over her ears, squeezing her eyes shut as if that would make it all go away.
Guard
"Well now, look who's learned to be a good pretty girl," a voice said, and Emma peeked out from under her blanket to see one of the guards, her dinner tray and medications in one hand. "They're sayin' you ain't kicked anyone all day. You did bite Mike, but, well, we can't expect miracles and he did botch that shot."
Emma
Emma didn't answer; just stared at him until he put the tray down on the little desk they'd let her have. They'd bolted it to the floor, and the chair was locked into sliders on the floor, but at least it was something else to look at.
Guard
"Creeper," he muttered, trying to shake off the feel of her eyes on his skin. The Frost girl was a strange one, sane or not, and it grated on him that they hadn't been allowed yet to teach her a real lesson.
Except that gave him an idea, and he turned to shut the door behind himself before turning back to the tray and adding a few extra pills to the pile he'd already counted out for her. "So, you gonna keep being good and take your meds or not?"
Emma
Emma drew her lips back in a silent snarl, giving her opinion of that idea. She was still lucid enough to understand that the pills made the voices worse, not better, and like he'd said - she'd still bitten Mike. If he tried to shove them down her throat, she'd do the same to him.
Guard
"Oh, good." Something about that smile made her heart sink into her chest. "That means we get to do this the hard way, and guess what, Princess? I'm the only one on the floor for the next two hours.
Emma
His smile grew, and she knew. She could hear everything, knew exactly how he planned to spend the next hour and a half, and how much he wanted to hurt her. How much he was going to enjoy hurting her, hurting them, and how he thought she would scream very prettily and --
Nononononononononono
"NO!"
Guard
His eyes rolled back in his head as he seized up, a strangling, gurgling sound coming from his throat as he spasmed uncontrollably.
A moment later and it was over as he thudded to the floor, eyes still glowing the same red as Emma's. It had been quick, but it had not been painless.
Emma
A heart beat. Two. Three. She stared at him sightlessly, all the voices in her head clamouring for attention until she found some sort of consensus among them all.
<< Take me out of here. >>
Guard
He lurched to his feet and took staggering steps toward her, reaching down to pick her up very gently before turning towards the door to her cell.
The door made a strange groan, a twisted shrieking of metal and glass before shattering completely and he stepped through the broken frame, his precious cargo riding on his shoulder.
Emma
Out. They would go out. That was the only thought on her mind. She didn't even notice objects shattering as they walked past, or the psionic energy licking about her hands and along the rest of her body. Lightbulbs exploded overhead, showering the area in sparks. Sparks that became little fires, where they burned the walls and floor. Little fires that joined together to become bigger ones, quickly spreading through the air ducts.
Not that she cared. All that mattered was Out, and woe be to anyone who got in their path.
Karla
Parts of the hospital were nice; the parts that the families would see, the rooms with wide open windows and comfortable furniture, where concerned members could visit their imprisoned loved ones and be comforted that they were being taken care of.
Those cheerful and comfortable rooms were far away from here, where the patients truly lived.
Karla glided down the hallway, barely aware of the commotion around her. She was focused on one thing: finding Emma and getting her away from this place. Forget sneaking. Forget stealth. The air around the cells practically stank of fear and pain and nightmares lingered in the wall.
She'd known a place like this once. The uncles had called it Briarwood.
Patient
"No! No! Don't touch me!" A woman's shriek echoed down the hallway. "Leave me alone! Don't touch me! Don't touch me!"
Karla
Karla barely had time to pull up a sight shield before they screaming woman turned the corner. For a moment, she'd seen only the blond hair over the white paper gown and had thought it was Emma being half-dragged, half-carried by a dark-haired orderly. Sapphire energy had crackled around her hand before she realized, no, it was another female being manhandled.
To act, or not to?
Patient
"Help me!" The girl screamed, trying to kick at the nurse holding her. Her eyes seemed to lock onto Karla's even through the shield. "Don't let him put me back there! She's coming! She's coming and we're all going to die! Help me!"
The orderly swept by Karla's spot in the hallway without blinking twice, his whole attention on the struggling girl in his arms. "Stop freaking out!" he yelled right into her ear, before almost dropping her onto the ground in front of a small wooden door. "Shut up, all right? Just shut up!"
The girl began fighting in earnest then, diving towards Karla with a hand outstretched. The orderly snagged her by the waist, knocking the wind out of her and hauling her back.
"A little help here?!" he yelled. "Natives are getting really restless!"
Assistant Nurse
At his yell, another woman came rushing down the corridor from behind her. "Yes, yes, I'm here!" she said impatiently, getting out a keycard and swiping it across a little white box mounted on the wall. "You're not the only one having trouble with them, Sal! The whole ward is insane tonight!"
The door opened with a click of moving mechanisms and Sal practically tossed his patient inside. She hit the ground in a roll and came right back up on her feet. "Don't let them trap me in here with her!" she screamed, staring past the nurses back at Karla. "Don't let them kill me!"
Sal & Nurse Assistant
"What the hell is she going on about?" the female nurse asked.
"How should I know?" Sal retorted. "I don't speak crazy!"
"We're going to have to sedate her." Pulling out a bottle of pills from her pocket, the nurse shook a few out into her hand and entered the room, Sal close behind. The patient tried to get away, but the room wasn't very big and they soon had her backed into a corner. After getting her to dry swallow several of the pills, they sat the girl on her bed and then left the room.
"Come on," the female nurse ordered as the door swung shut behind them. "There are reports of a fire or something in Section D. We're needed."
The Girl
As soon as their footsteps faded down the hallway, the patient came over to the door, pressing her face against the tiny window.
"You're still there..." she said. "I can still feel you. The air's disrupted around you."
Karla
Karla blinked in shock and moved closer to the door. "You can sense me?" she asked. "Are you a mutant?"
The Girl
"Says the invisible girl." She snorted and made a few retching noises, her face disappearing from the window. "There," she said with a hint of satisfaction. "They made sure I swallowed but didn't stay long enough to make sure I kept them down. Fools."
She appeared again, her eyes uncannily following Karla's every move. "Are you getting out of here? Take me with you. I don't want her to kill me. And she will, if we don't get out. She's crazy enough to kill everyone."
Karla
"Who will?" Karla asked. "Who's going to kill you? I'll get you out, keep you safe, but I'm not leaving here until we find a friend of mine."
If there was some psychopath in the asylum with Emma, it just made it that much more important that they get her out.
The Girl
"Just let me out of here and I'll make it out on my own," the girl said. "I don't want to wander around this place with her on the loose. She really is crazy. She makes the air around her go all fuzzy and weird. It hurts my head and gave me a nosebleed." She glanced down the hall in either direction and shook her head. "I think she's why everything is so crazy tonight. But I'd rather get out of here than wait around to say 'thank you.'"
She stiffened. "Something's wrong with the air. It's getting more distorted. I think the fires are spreading. Get me out of here, now!"
Karla
If the clinic was on fire, Karla wasn't going to waste any more time trying to ask questions. A shock of Sapphire energy had the wall on the box hissing sparks and smoke and the mechanism within the doors disengaged. She yanked the door open.
"Hey, thanks--" Karla didn't give the girl time to finish. Instead, she grabbed for her hand and projected an image of Emma directly into her mind's eye.
"This is my friend. Have you seen her?" she asked. "I've got to find her."
The Girl
The girl gasped and flung herself backwards, whether from shock or the intrusion of her mind. "That's her," she moaned. "Her! The one who is coming for all of us! You're friends with her?! Don't hurt me! Leave me alone!"
Karla
"Neither of us is going to hurt you!" Karla snapped. "But I have to find her! I can calm her down, keep her safe! Keep you all safe! But I have to know where she is!"
The Girl
"That way! She's that way!" the girl said, pointing in the direction the orderlies had gone. "She's doing things--I can feel them! Just let me go!" She whined deep in her throat and tried to pull her hand out of Karla's grip, her back pressed tightly against the wall. "Please, I just want to go!"
Karla
Karla released her instantly, an apologetic expression flitting across her face. "Go," she whispered. "Help anyone out that you can."
Visibly steeling herself, she touched the walls again and concentrated, making the walls glow blue for a minute before all the little white boxes on the walls began to malfunction. Doors began to slowly open as pale, frightened faces peeked out.
"You help these people," Karla ordered the girl. "You get them all out, you hear me? No one deserves to be stuck in here like this."
The Girl
"What kind of mutant are you?" the girl whispered.
Karla
"I'm a witch," Karla said with a shrug. "And I'm here to find my friend. Now get these people out of here."
And then she was running down the hallway, ignoring anything that wasn't Emma Frost.
Sookie
Sookie's anxiety was reaching a peak, and it didn't help that she'd pulled her shields down to search for Emma's brain through the commotion. Her skin glowed, flickering as she tried to subdue it, to keep the inmates' emotions from affecting her powers, and her fingertips blazed purple.
She didn't strike yet. She was too busy searching, static crackling through her hair.
Dark-haired Patient
One of the patients managed to catch sight of Sookie and whimpered, drawing in on herself. "Monsters," she cried, curling up protectively. "I was bad, and now there's monsters. This is hell."
Sookie
Sookie's heart broke a little, hearing that, and the sparks in her hands instantly disappeared. "Not monsters, darling," she said softly, keeping a fair distance from the girl. Her skin still glowed a soft gold, her palms taking up the same color for a moment. She could feel Claudine watch her, even if she hadn't shown herself here. "And this isn't hell. No one is going to hurt you."
Dark-haired patient
"Right. So long as we eat our portions and take our pills, you won't hurt us," she bit out. "When the lights go down, that's when the screams start, and you know the monsters are out."
She looked pointedly at Sookie's hands. "Did you start the fire? Good."
Sookie
"This is your chance," Sookie said quietly. "Run away from here, from the monsters. Show them you don't need your pills. No one is going to hurt you. I'm not a monster, but I know you're surrounded by them. This is your chance to leave."
Dark-haired Patient
Right, now the girl was staring at Sookie. "Changed my mind. You aren't a monster; you have got to be one of my stupider pill-induced hallucinations," she sighed. "None of us have anywhere else to go."
Still, she headed towards an exit door, one not being mobbed by the more panicked residents. "I think I'll just go watch the fire. Maybe if I'm lucky, I won't have here to go to either."
Sookie
"This is your shot to run, sweetheart," Sookie called softly. "I've got some cash, if you need a way to get away. Find a hotel. Get a job, get off the pills. I'm not a hallucination, or a monster. I'm not anything from your world. Don't give in like that."
Peter
Peter wanted to just head straight to find Emma, but the instant he was aware the building was on fire, evacuating the place seemed a good idea too.
Of course, trying to help inmates out of a place like this was liable to bring the wrong attention...
Nurse
"You there!" one of the nurses shouted, looking harried. "What are you doing in your street clothes? I don't care if you're off-shift, get in uniform, quick, and sedate as many of them as you can. I don't want a panic."
Peter
"So we're going to sedate the people in the burning building instead of getting them out of the building?" Peter said, not liking the sound of that.
Nurse
"Do you want to be in charge of them outside when one decides to have a manic episode, or if a group of them get it into their heads to bolt?" she snapped. "It'll be easier to herd them outside and get them to stay quiet if you give them a sedative first."
Peter
"I'll be in charge," Peter said. "Let's just get them out. Better to have some run away then to have any die."
He was very insistent in his tone.
Nurse
"What, you think we won't have a few accidental overdoses or suicides this week if we get them all out?" she scoffed. "But fine. Herd them out, but don't loose any. If this gets in the paper, they'll fire all of us."
Peter
Peter didn't care if they all got fired.
"Perfect," Peter said. "Now how about you start helping them get out of the building too."
If she said no, he was willing to scare her out of the building.
Nurse
"I'm getting their charts," she snapped, looking at Peter as if he was a moron. "Most of them aren't cognizant enough to know their own names, let alone what their allergies are."
"Just get them moving, orderly. Here -" she unhooked a large keyring from her waist, and handed it over with her keycard. "Since you don't have your ID on you, that'll get you into the secure sections. Someone needs to let the crazies out, too."
Peter
"I'll get my uniform on right away," he said, taking the keyring and instantly booking it to the more secure areas.
Jackpot.
Jack
The scent of smoke stung Jack's eyes and throat. He ignored it. Helping Emma didn't seem within his grasp at the moment, but there were plenty of other people who didn't deserve to be burned alive.
Michelle, Ward Nurse
"Hurry up!" The girl with the brown ponytail seemed actually worried as she tried shepherding her charges out. "That's right, a nice line, but you all need to move a little faster."
She was trying to help along a thin, tired-looking girl, who appeared to have barely enough energy to walk. The look she threw Jack was 'little help, please?'
Jack
Nodding in understanding, Jack offered his arm to the tired girl, taking a few slow steps toward the way out. "It's all right," he said. "We just need to go a bit more this way."
Michelle
"Thank you," the nurse breathed, mistaking Jack for one of the administration assistants. "This is the last of my group, all the eating disorder kids are accounted for."
She shifted her hold on her charge, sticking out a hand. "Michelle. I'm the evening nutrition nurse."
Jack
"Jack," Jack said lightly, taking the hand in his free one. Usually he would have trotted out an alias, but the chance someone would call him by name was simply too high. "They sent me by to find an Emma Frost, but I don't think she'd be in with the bulimics. Besides, it's not exactly a convenient time for an appointment..."
Michelle
"Frost?" Michelle shook her head. "Sorry, not one of mine. I'd ask if you knew what ward, but..." she gestured to the surrounding chaos. "Hopefully she's not there at the moment."
Jack
"I'm sure the ward's somewhere in my notes, but I don't know off the top of my head," Jack admitted. "With any luck, she's been evacuated, either way. I'm just glad I can help a little."
Michelle
"You could try going around to the left, there's an arbor under the skyway that connects to the other building," she said, pointing. "It will take you to the other side without trying to circle everything with these hills."
"Be careful. The fire department is on their way, and I don't want them to pull you out in the morning, Jack-from-Admin."
Jack
"I can definitely think of better ways to spend my night," Jack said, managing not to shudder as he went in the direction she pointed with a certain philosophical sway to his steps. He hadn't helped Emma, but he'd gotten out in one piece, and without making anything worse.
He could only hope his cohorts had better luck.
Alex
Considering how heavy of a smoker he was, the smell of smoke didn't immediately bother him. When it got stronger and sharper, then he was covering his mouth with his hand and squinting so he wouldn't end up dead of smoke inhalation.
Leaning against the wall, Alex tried to see through the smoke to some place Emma might be. He coughed and considered quitting smoking after this.
Orderly
To the orderly, Alex looked like every other trouble-making teenager that had been shoved in this place.
"Come on, hot shot," he growled, grabbing his shoulder to shove him along. "It's time for an extra walk on the grounds."
Alex
"Oh buddy, touching me is not allowed," Alex said, aiming a kick towards the orderly's instep so his giant meat paw would remove itself from his shoulder. "I only let girls do that and even then, they gotta be nice."
Orderly
Fuck, that hurt. "Are you seriously giving me a problem? Right now?" he yelled, moving to grab Alex again and haul him out by an arm. "You make this a pissing contest, tough guy, and we'll sedate you."
Alex
"The last fucker who put his hands on me never came back after I beat the shit out of him," Alex warned, trying to shove the point of his elbow into this dude's gut.
This reminded him of his dad all over again and he was not letting himself get the shit kicked out of him like that ever again.
Orderly
"Gee, wonder why you're here instead of juvie," the orderly taunted. "Daddy haul you out of trouble again?"
Rich kids. Most of these little punks would straighten up just fine if their parents weren't so damned lazy. "Move it, punk, or I'll leave you to burn with the rest of the crazies down in isolation."
Alex
"No, Daddy used to beat the shit out of me," Alex said, trying to twist out of the grip of the hulking mass of meat. Without even thinking about, Alex tried to kick at the orderly's knee to either break it or bend it or do something.
All he knew was that he was not letting his guy drag him somewhere.
Orderly
Something crunched and he doubled-over, letting Alex go and howling in pain.
"If you thought daddy was bad, we're going to pound you until you think he's Mother Teresa," he spat. "Let's see how you like a few days in isolation, once they get the fire out."
That was when he noticed something rather important - being crippled with pain meant you looked down, and when you looked down, you saw things. This kid was wearing real shoes, not the standard safe-slippers given to the patients.
"Fuck! Guys! Someone! We got an intruder over here!"
Alex
"Goddammit! Can't you be quiet?" Alex asked, glaring angrily down at the crumpled guard. He wasn't going to stick around to have someone else try and grab at him so as soon as he was loose, he took off, still trying to find wherever Emma was.
Poor orderly could nurse his broken leg and Alex was so making Emma buy him so many drinks when they found her. When. He had to think that way.
Emma Grace Frost
'Take me out of here,' she had whispered, and He obeyed. She paid no attention to the broken and bleeding bodies as she drifted past; heedless of the destruction she was leaving in her wake, psionic energy leaping and coiling about her, objects twisting and collapsing in on themselves. Lights flickered and then exploded around her, causing small electrical fires that grew and spread.
Out.
And woe be to those that got in her way.
Peter
Peter wasn't even going to wait for anyone else. He spotted her, and he was definitely worried. Swallowing that little voice that told him it was a bad idea, he ran up, and he tried to grab her shoulder.
"Emma," he said, strength in his voice if not in his mind.
Emma
Male. Assertive.
No.
She responded by bringing up a hand to shove him away by the chest. Only instead of Emma's normal strength behind it, there was a sudden burst of telekinesis, propelling him back and away from her.
Peter
Back and into a wall. There was a loud crack, as bone broke and then his skull collided with the structure.
He slumped down, barely conscious, bleeding from where his forehead had collided with the wall, his head swimming from the pain of the arm that he couldn't move.
"...that didn't go as planned," he said, weakly.
Emma
Something flickered in her eyes, then, and she turned back to face him.
There was something there, a twinge, something fighting for control behind her blank gaze as she regarded him. He was like a music box song that she did not quite remember, or a dream that wasn't quite real.
In the end, it wasn't quite enough to pull her back to reality. The blankness reasserted itself and she moved on, leaving him behind her.
Karla
Karla had been slowed by the necessity of dealing with a few fires, orderlies, and some patients that had required her attention, concern, and, once or twice, sheer brute force. She knew she was close. She still couldn't feel Emma, but the knot of agony and terror was growing closer as she ran.
Skidding around another corner, she slammed into a gibbering nurse. Karla wheeled and managed to stay upright, but the nurse crumpled where she'd stood, barely resisting. "Are you all right?" Karla asked, reaching over to help the woman back up. "Look, you need to get out of he--"
Nurse!
The nurse screamed. And pointed. And then went slack-jawed and limp, like a marionette with all its strings cut.
Karla
Karla slowly turned around. And there, behind her...
"Emma."
Hell's fire, Mother Night, and may the Darkness have mercy.
Emma
Darkness have mercy indeed, because Emma would not.
She didn't even register that Karla was there, nor did her hulking guard. The moment she made a hostile move, that might change, but for now, Emma was hunting those that hurt the children.
Karla
"Emma!"
Karla could understand how the patient she'd seen before had believed that Emma was crazy, that she was going to kill them all. Karla was looking at her and saw nothing: no sanity, no spark of recognition, not even a hint of the friend she'd come to love over the past two years.
*Emma!*
Emma
She stopped and cocked her head for a moment, as if listening, and then continued on, the objects around Karla breaking and popping like soda cans crumpling in an invisible fist.
Two more orderlies charged around the corner, and pink lightning eerily similar to Sookie's streamed from her hands, felling them before her minion could get close enough to bash their heads in.
She continued on, paying no heed to the bodies as she walked past. Out, and hurting those that hurt the children. That was all that mattered now, and then everything would burn.
Sookie
And the funny thing about that pink lightning is that Sookie recognized it all the way from where she was. "Emma!" she screamed, running over in a mad dash, her voice hoarse as her palms shone a hot fuchsia, her skin glowing golden. "Karla? Is she -- "
<< Is she there? >> she asked, switching over and staring at the husk of what was once their friend. Her mind raced with the images of what Raven had planted of her future self, the merciless fairy-queen who no longer understood human pain.
These weren't people, or things. These were obstacles. Emma seemed like everything she feared she'd become, herself, which somehow made it more terrifying.
Karla
*I...don't think so,* Karla sent, with a quick shake of her head. She didn't take her eyes off Emma as she did so. *I keep trying to reach her and I'm only getting power and rage. It's terrifying.*
Sookie
<< Her mind hurts, >> Sookie agreed, seeking out for a second. << All blacks and reds and anger. >>
A pause, as she stared at Emma, trying to see any trace of her friend in there.
<< We have to stop her. I'm just scared to break her. >>
Karla
*If we try to stop her, she's going to perceive us as a threat,* Karla cautioned. *And if she does and we have to fight her off, we might end up hurting her just to keep her from hurting us!*
But what else could they do? They couldn't just leave her like this.
*I can start by trying to trap her in a shield?*
Sookie
<< So she can't hit us? >> Sookie asked, nodding. << I can try and soothe her mind, or...put her to sleep, or something. >>
A little turn of the tables, there.
Karla
*Perhaps this'll work better if we get her outside first?* Karla suggested. *She may feel less trapped that way, less willing to lash out.*
She slowly began keeping pace with Emma's guard, not willing to let them get out of sight. Darkness only knew what havoc their presence might prevent.
*Plus, you know, fire,* she added, after a haze of smoke gave her a coughing fit.
Emma
Emma paused momentarily when she realized she as being shadowed, but once she determined the girls were not a threat, she moved on. Things still sparked and creaked dangerously, but so far she had not turned on her new honor guard.
Sookie
Sookie yanked her shirt up over the lower half of her face, using her brain more than her eyes to follow Emma and her guard through the haze.
She missed Bobby pretty hard right then, for a number of reasons, though chief on her mind was the fire.
<< What's going to happen to that guy, when she stops what she's doing to him? >> she asked, having guessed what was up there.
Karla
*Depends on how much of him is left when she's done,* Karla sent, mental voice grim. *I don't think she was really up for subtle, so she might just have...overwritten whatever she wanted.*
Which, honestly, was kind of best-case-scenario. If Emma were simply impatient, there might be large sections of his mind untouched. If Emma had decided to be thorough... well, the male would end up back in an asylum like this one, but it wouldn't be as a guard anymore.
Seeing a large door marked 'Exit' ahead of them, Karla took a gamble and started weaving soothing spells around it, anchoring them to the door frame. She was too wary to try to start casting on Emma directly, but a spell that was tied to something else might escape her notice.
Emma
It felt like singing, almost. As if there was a song under her skin.
She turned slowly towards the door, drawn by something she couldn't quiet recognize. It felt right, familiar, and not like this place. And step by step, it drew her closer until she had her hand pressed flat against the door.
She stood, looking at it for a moment until her gaze shifted slightly towards Karla, as if she connected the feel of the door to the girl, and the door shattered outward, blown right off its hinges.
Karla
*Well, that's a good sign,* Karla said with a purely mental sigh.
Yes, sarcasm was a perfectly acceptable response to being stuck inside a burning asylum with a homicidal version of one of her closest friends.
Hmmm...closest friend...that gave her the start of an idea.
*Sookie. Do you think you can force a psychic link to her?*
Sookie
<< I can certainly try, >> Sookie replied warily, trying not to let her fear take hold right now. This called for the telepath, not the fairy, and magic fuel of her anger had no place here.
But damn. Emma had just blown a door off. That was, to put a term to it, some scary shit.
Sookie closed her eyes for half a breath, drawing her strength and focus into her mind before flashing her eyes open and reaching out to lock onto Emma's brain. The link wasn't in place yet -- Sookie was just pressing forward with her mind, steadily so as not to startle her into further violence -- and letting herself into the spindly blurs of red and black.
<< I feel like I'm at a rodeo. >>
Which was probably about as appropriate as sarcasm, all things considered.
Karla
*I'll take your word for it,* Karla sent. *When you're ready, I want you to send Emma every memory you have of her. I'll do the same through the link I have with you. If she can't remember who and what she is, we're going to forcibly remind her.*
Though this would probably work better with more people.
*Let me see if I can't find Jack, Alex, and Peter and loop them in, too,* she added.
She dropped her link with Sookie for a moment. She was juggling enough with trying to get a lock on Emma, she didn't need Karla yelling in her head on top of all that.
*Hey!* Karla had no problems finding the minds of the three boyos they had brought with them--though some of the signals she was picking up from Peter had her worried. She gathered their minds in a loop and reestablished a link with Sookie. *As soon as Sookie says she's ready, I'm going to need everyone to dig up as many memories as they have of Emma as possible. The more vivid, the better! Good, bad, I don't care, just anything to remind Emma who she is!*
Sookie
And with a final push, Sookie was in. Her mind fit against Emma's snugly, and for a moment, Emma's rage threatened to crash against Sookie. She glowed gold, her skin shining out in a burst before subduing as Sookie took control of the link.
<< Ready, >> she called through the link, her mental voice taut with strain of the bond. And with that word, she called up every memory she held of Emma -- happy and sad alike.
Emma taking her shopping, and the two of them scolding Karla about hemlines. French Club meetings, with Emma's deprecation of her accent. Christmas in Bon Temps. A million little mental threads, each of them infused with the warmth that Sookie felt at finally finding a place with other telepaths.
Emma had been her first friend like her, in Fandom. She had been the one to show her how freakish they weren't.
She couldn't lose her now.
Alex
Alex figured he could do this. He couldn't read minds or throw people into walls with telekinesis but he could do this. Once he got the go ahead to start thinking, he did.
Some of them were dirty (he couldn't help it, they were good memories) like teasing each other with naughty mental images in class, having fun in a stock room during Thanksgiving dinner, having her throw him a birthday party with Rose, multiple conversations in the shadows at dances and the relief and comfort he felt when she'd offered to help him with his family.
He gathered all that up and sent it.
Jack
Jack took a moment to sort through his thoughts, then the memories came fast and furious.
Flowers in a class on flirting. A kiss he'd pulled back from. Kisses he hadn't pulled back from. Play rehearsals. Dances. A smirking little daughter with blonde braids. A date in their last moments before he left the island. Meeting Hank. Encountering Emma's sister -- and comforting her after. A bitter argument at Homecoming. On and on it went, some beauty and some horrible pain, everything that made him and Emma a pair. He finished with two things that didn't seem like they went with the rest -- a middle-aged couple sharing a drink at a reunion, and a little boy and little girl feeding playful ducklings.
He stopped there, almost shaking. Let me know if you need more.
Peter
Even if he was bleeding, slumped against the ground, and scared out of his mind, there was one thing he could do at that moment, and that was remember the Emma Frost he, against all better notions, probably loved.
The singular girl that challenged him in every way. The memories of the softer moments, the sweeter moments, and oddly a memory of friendship that seemed to come not from the past, but the future.
The not-a-monster in his bed. The homecoming queen.
The young woman that had kept him from leaving Fandom behind when he'd turned eighteen.
That was the Emma he knew, and that he remembered at that very moment with all his might.
Emma
Emma had barely stepped through the door to the outside when Sookie's link had engaged, and she staggered forward, overwhelmed by the impact of these new - strong - presences in her head.
Her hold on the guard dissipated, and crumpled to the ground, unconscious. He'd be fine in the morning - unfortunately - save for the raging headache and no memory of the last week, and an unfortunate nervous tick.
She fell to her knees as she tried to sort through the input. Lucidity was fighting against the drugs they'd pumped into her, and she cried, the first sound she'd made in days beyond the single 'no' earlier.
Karla
While everyone else had been sending strong memories of love and friendship and anger and hurt, buffeting Emma with reminders of who she was and why they were fighting to reach her, Karla had been busy slipping under Emma's defenses.
*I love you, Ems,* she sent. *You can thank me for this later.*
Or hit her, possibly, because this was going to hurt.
With the Craft that was her birthright, Karla burned away the drugs in Emma's system, ripping them from blood and flesh and brain, removing the residue of every pill and injection they'd pumped her with. Emma's body lit up with Sapphire light as Karla cleansed her, like a beacon in the night.
Emma
Emma screamed.
It hurt like nothing she'd ever experienced in her life, like someone was ripping out every single nerve from her body and then stitched back together. Her own psionic firelight flickered and died abruptly as terror and sanity swept across her face.
And then Emma clutched at her stomach and threw up. Repeatedly.
[OOC: Cut for violence, NPC abuse, disturbing images, etc. Preplayed with my fantastic cast, who helped me bring Emma's original origin from Generation X #24 into Fandom High canon. Oh, and shamelessly rip off a little bit of Endsong for the end. I feel no guilt. NFI, NFB, OOC = OK.]