To fruitful strifes and rivalries of peace

[Laurie Collins]

[[Laurie and Rahne's break-out thread]]

It’s an interesting sensation- to be caught between the desperate desire for open doors, for space and expansion, and the irresistible impulse to curl up as small as possible, to find a corner and hide. Laurie’s settled it so far by huddling in the back left corner of the cell except for intervals of about ten minutes when the first desire conquers her and she paces quickly to the door, pressing her palms flat against it and bracing herself as she stands on her toes to look out the small, high-set window. After each glimpse of the hall she lowers herself and looks over at Rahne for a moment, embarrassed and apologetic, hoping she isn’t driving her cellmate crazy. Each time she returns to her corner she thinks: That’s it, no more, there’s nothing in the hall and if anyone was coming there’s nothing I’d be able to do anyway. But the impulse is worrying at her again within a minute, the need to go back to the window, to be sure the world has not really narrowed to this tiny fluorescent square, building up to becoming unbearable until she’s on her feet again. She tries to stop herself for a while, but the thoughts that come rushing to fill the void- the constant worry for her mother and Matthew and everyone else, the interview with this man who claims to be her friend twenty years gone, and remembering her own analysis- are worse than any compulsion and so she lets the rhythm take her back.

She’s lowering herself back down to her feet from another peek through the door when one of the vents above her head to the left gives a sudden hiss and she turns towards it, curious, unthinking just in time to catch a deep breath of some sort of gas she can’t smell but can see a bit- a sort of tinted shimmer in the air. She gasps before she can master the impulse and pulls in more of the stuff, hands rising ineffectually to her throat, panic fluttering in her chest and clawing up from her stomach… and then she’s clamping down instinctively on an emission. It’s a testament to her recent hours of practice that she’s not even conscious of the control for a moment before realizing what’s happened and whirling towards Rahne, eyes wide, “It’s back.” she whispers in shock, vague from the sudden distraction of the feel of her mutation after so many hours rid of it.

[Rahne Sinclair]

Does she nae know how to sit still?

Rahne learned the art of sitting still more years ago than she can remember.

It’s an indispensable skill when living in the Highland wilderness, after all. She has spent hours without moving, waiting for prey to reveal itself, or huddling for warmth in a hole no larger than her own body. By comparison, this cell is spacious, warm, comfortable.

Granted, the bruises and cuts she picked up during “processing”, before learning exactly how weak she is without the Beast to fight her battles for her, are a distraction… but she’s suffered worse for longer. And they will heal no slower for being ignored. So, once she established that there was no way out of the cell, she found a comfortable position and waited.

Her cellmate’s unceasing motion is even more irritating than the bruises, but Rahne has managed to avoid letting it get to her. So far. Well, not very much, anyway.

For a while she indulged herself in fantasies of ripping out the girl’s throat and watching her twitching subside to stillness, but she’s since dismissed those… no doubt Primer would be upset if she dispatched his daughter so cavalierly. Not that there seems to be much affection between them, but the bonds of family can be stronger than mere affection.

So, she’s simply waited.

When the vents discharge a strange gas into the air, she holds her breath instantly, and stays where she is… perhaps, if she sits still, she can outwait whatever it is, like escaping from hunters under the surface of a still pond. She watches as her cellmate’s pointless pacing gives way to a panicked twitching, intrigued by how much more easily she can maintain calm without the Beast goading her.

> " It’s back."

Rahne isn’t sure what the girl means, but whatever it is, the gas doesn’t seem to be damaging her… good to know. She waits another few seconds just to be sure, while the urge to breathe becomes a fire in her chest, then finally relaxes and drinks the air in great gulps.

The first gasp has a strange taste to it, but nothing remarkable. The second she forgets to taste, distracted by the familiar surges in her body and mind as the Beast returns. The third…

The girl, clearly Primer’s offspring though without the odd tinge that so often attaches to Primer’s scent, smelling of fear and anxiety. The official, long gone but his spoor remaining behind… and, yes, the same boy they’d attacked the previous night, although inexplicably aged. The room, with harsh antisceptic failing to entirely conceal the scents of previous prisoners, traces of blood and fear.

The flimsy prison garb tears around her as she leaps to the door, landing on all fours and sniffing carefully around the edges. One guard. Two. Alarms. Explosions in the distance.

An opportunity.

She shifts into humanoid form and mutters over her shoulder "Aye… ‘tis back, indeed." A leap-and-spring is enough to strike the door, never designed to withstand mutant attack, off its hinges and into the hallway before she leaps for the nearest guard, claws extended.

[Laurie Collins]

"Aye… ‘tis back, indeed."

Why does that sound terribly ominous? Laurie wonders nervously as her cellmate rises to her feet. Then she remembers that the ominous atmosphere probably comes from the other mutant's penchant for ruthless killing as Rahne leaps for the door and then, that taken care of, for the nearest guard, claws extended for a killing blow.

For a moment she just hovers in the doorway, watching, a little bit of satisfaction rising up in her because after even the short time she's spent here, how could she not want this, at least a little bit? Then the moment passes, she realizes what she's thinking, and she leaps forward in horrified response just as Rahne brings the guard down yelling, "Stop!" and concentrating on her need to be heard, on obedience. The guards who had been drawing their weapons to aid their comrade stop abruptly and stare at her, waiting. At their expectant glance Laurie actually looks over her shoulder so unused to that look being directed at her that she automatically assumes someone else- Bob or Miss. Munroe sprung as well- must be standing behind her. But they're looking at her and now that she's stopped Rahne, pheromones or no she only has a limited window before she'll have to let Rahne take care of the guards her way or be overwhelmed towards the guards that will doubtless be heading towards them any minute. There's a long moment, almost too long, when she freezes up, waiting despite the impossibility, for someone to assume command.

Then somehow she's speaking, fumbling and obviously scared, but maintaining her pheromones and getting her message out. "Y-you um, just get your...um...colleagues? No, wrong word, and um, unimportant... er just unlock that cell." She gestures towards the next door over and the guard moves obediently to open it, not even blinking when a man in his thirties, bony and terrified, darts past him and stumbles down the hall. "Okay, thank you, now everyone except Rahne just...go in there please?" her surprise when the guards troop- in a single file line even- into the cell almost breaks her control but she manages to slam the door closed behind them before taking a deep breath and releasing her control then turning towards Rahne with an earnest look that's torn between stubbornness, contrition, and wariness. "Sorry I just... I could make them stop without anyone getting hurt...so..." she trails off as alarms begin echoing through the corridor and more doors burst open, all her small certainty of the past few moments quickly disappearing as the hallway descends into noisy chaos.

[Rahne Sinclair]

> " Stop!"

Rahne ignores the command for a moment, then skids to a halt almost comically when the need to obey fills her. The guards stand down as well, all looking to Laurie for further orders. Rahne pins her captive to the ground with an enormous hindpaw on his throat, but doesn’t injure him… then watches incredulously as the guards lock themselves into a cell.

> " Sorry I just... I could make them stop without anyone getting hurt...so..."

"They deserved to be hurt, girl. They deserve to die." But there is no challenge in her voice, no threat. She may disagree with Laurie’s priorities, but she remains the girl’s obedient hound, just as she was her father’s.

It does occur to her to wonder why… but with the Beast back in residence and chaos surrounding her, it’s not a question she gives much attention to. She never has given much thought to contemplating her own motives, after all – she acts on instinct first and foremost, and her instincts tell her this woman is to be obeyed.

Obeyed, but also protected, she decides as more inmates and guards are released into the halls. Indoors is the wrong path, with so many people. So she doubles back into their cell, confident that the reinforced window will be no more capable of withstanding her than the door was.

A moment later she is outside, hanging onto the wall and gesturing impatiently to Laurie.
"Let’s go, girl. If I canna kill them, ‘tis best to flee."

[Laurie Collins]

"They deserved to be hurt, girl. They deserve to die."

Laurie's so surprised at the comparatively gentle tone Rahne has suddenly adopted that she almost misses the actual words altogether. When she finally comprehends them she shakes her head quickly, "No one deserves..." but she lets the sentence trail off because after a year at the Institute, a year of seeing what she's seen, she can't say that so quickly anymore. But why is Rahne so calm, even friendly suddenly? she wonders, before that question is put out of her head as someone, she can't see who, smacks into her and sends her reeling.

"Let’s go, girl. If I canna kill them, ‘tis best to flee."


She stumbles the short distance through the crowd towards the sound of Rahne's voice until she sees her hanging out the window of their cell. "But-" she starts looking back over her shoulder into the hallway for a glimpse of Miss. Munroe or Bob. No, I have to stay here and find them, I can't just run off... but when she looks back at Rahne waiting for her and almost seeming concerned, if it's even possible to decipher emotion on the other mutant's half-animal face, something clicks and she blanches slightly. Rahne is Primer's subordinate, used to having pheromones used on her, and has evidently never questioned it since she's still loyal to him, still attacking on command. And she started taking orders, watching out for me, right after those obedience pheromones...oh God... The realization brings a wave of disgust and then, in its wake, a surprising sense of responsibility for someone who could kill her as easily and probably as guiltlessly as she could snap her fingers. Sorry... she apologizes silently to Bob and Miss. Munroe (though really, what use would she have been anyway?) before taking a deep breath and shoving down her trepidation at even first story heights and easing herself out the window after Rahne whispering, "Okay..."

[Rahne Sinclair]

Rahne scans the courtyard area for enemies and ambush points and places of concealment. She's learned enough about her new world to know that breaking through the reinforced window of their cell no doubt set off alarms, but she hears enough other alarms going off that she's not too concerned... when prey scatters, most escape safely. (It rankles her to adopt the strategies of prey, but the unquestionable truth is that right now, that is her role. Later, she promises herself, she will return to take her vengeance.)

Meanwhile the girl hesitates, and Rahne growls in frustration. She does naught but move, move, move when it's time to keep still, and now she dawdles like a moonstruck sheep? She's about to charge back into the room and grab the girl when she finally moves to the window.

> "Okay"

Rahne isn’t entirely sure what the girl is acceding to, but she chooses to take it as agreement to flee this place. "Then stay still," she mutters, wrapping a furred reddish-brown arm around Laurie’s waist, "an’ I'll take ye along the high road. ‘tis safer."

Without waiting for agreement she leaps high, scrabbling up the side of the building to plant them both on the roof. It’s more difficult with only three free limbs, but Laurie weighs little and the wall is sufficiently festooned with lights and mountings that it is not difficult to climb.

From the heights, the battle is more readily visible, and she stops for a moment to investigate paths. Battle is raging everywhere, and the only un-guarded paths appear to lead to dead ends… never a good idea. She growls again, louder this time, and prepares to search underground when the winged man leads a rain of missiles into the courtyard, turning a battalion of guards into nothing but a collection of moaning wounded and silent dead.

She roars in vicarious triumph and grabs Laurie again. "This way! Quickly!" Without waiting for permission she leaps again, cradling the girl in her arms as she lands, then puts her down. "Follow me, lass! And don’t dawdle!"

She shifts into full wolf-form then, to fully access the Beast’s senses, and races through the crater-pocked courtyard in search of a way out, aware of Laurie’s tediously slow progress behind her.

[Laurie Collins]

"Then stay still, an’ I'll take ye along the high road. ‘tis safer."

The guttural tone comes in unison with an arm around her waist and, despite the circumstances, Laurie actually makes a face- squinching her eyes shut and wrinkling her nose- as she realizes she's going to get carried again. It seems to be part of being relatively small, knowing people who fly a lot, and often being put in situations where aerial escape is necessary but that doesn't mean she has to like it. A few jouncing leaps later she's been proved right and they're on top of the roof watching the battle that's enabled their escape.

While Rahne paces and growls Laurie peers anxiously through the troops of both sides for some clue as to what's happening, hands at her temples, tangled in her hair to keep it out of her face in the wind, and eyes squinted against the wind and sudden bursts of light from the explosions happening all around them. It just looks like chaos from here though and no one's recognizable until Mr. Worthington swoops in and drops his missiles onto the crowd of guards. Laurie blanches almost in unison with Rahne's roar of triumph as she sees the results of the attack and hunches automatically, deciding maybe it isn't such a great idea to try and get his attention after all, what if he's like the guard who claims to be some future version of Bob?

But she can't dwell on that because Rahne's hauled her up again and a moment later they're in the midst of the wreckage of Warren's attack. There are too many options now- staying and trying to help the wounded in this rather deserted patch, looking for her friends, trying to get Mr. Worthington's attention after all- on top of the other events of the day that are somewhere lightyears beyond merely "stressful" and then the newfound sense of responsibility for Rahne all swirling together so that when the other mutant orders her to follow she obeys quickly, tucking her head and taking off after Rahne as fast as she can.

There's no trouble getting through the deserted patch that Warren's bombed, and someone's blasted a hole through the fence, so they're out of the camp in one rather anti-climactic dash. When she's somewhere just beyond completely out of breath she pulls up and looks around, huffing out "Rahne," as she stops and bends over, resting her hands on her knees and breathing heavily as she looks around. They're in a lightly wooded patch of land, just out of view of the camp if they decide to go back and try to find the others but at the same time a road must be fairly nearby for the camp to get supplies and such. Unsure of what to do she settles for straightening up to ask Rahne "Do you hear anyone following us?"

[Rahne Sinclair]

> " Rahne… do you hear anyone following us? "

Rahne’s fairly certain she would have noticed anyone following them, and had anyone else asked the question she would have dismissed it as a distraction. But this is Her, so she stops short and concentrates on a more careful scan of her environment.

The smells of machines and fire and death wafts over her, the sounds of war, but all coming from the camp itself. There are others nearby, most likely guards manning watchposts, but they are not growing closer. They appear safe for the moment. Of course, that is a temporary condition… they have to find a more secure shelter. But the sounds of Her labored breathing make it clear they must rest first.

So she continues listening carefully, long past the point where new information is being found, with the relaxed contentment that comes of following rightful orders. Meanwhile, the less animal part of her mind contents itself with burning into her memory the faces of the guards who will, some day, be made to pay for their treatment of her.

The way Rahne tilts her canine head from side to side to listen to and taste the air would be endearing if it weren’t for the low menacing growl coming, apparently unintentionally, from her throat. After a moment she locks eyes with Laurie and deliberately shakes her muzzle from side to side in a human-style “no” gesture, unwilling to shift back to hybrid form to speak, and waits for Laurie’s breathing to return to normal.

[Laurie Collins]

Laurie almost laughs as she watches Rahne scenting the air like an overgrown puppy sniffling at snow. Then the other mutant rumbles low in her throat and she sobers quickly. It’s easy to forget what she’s really like, the things she’s done, but is any of it really her fault? Primer’s persuasive even without how susceptible she is and the way she talks, how she got here, it isn’t as if she’s had the opportunity to develop some sophisticated moral compass… she shakes her head as she realizes with a jolt that Rahne’s looking to her for a decision again- go back to camp, stay here, or head for the road. Her stomach sinks as if responsibility is a stone she’s swallowing over and over again with each expectant look from Rahne. She wonders dimly if this is how the adults at the Institute feel all the time while she goes over the options in her mind. Go back to the camp and they might find the others but she’ll almost certainly lose control of Rahne, and they might get hurt or killed in addition to hurting or killing more people with no guarantee of even finding the others. Staying here is just stupid; there’s no shelter and sooner or later some guards are going to happen upon them. Going out to the road and getting a ride to the nearest town would cut them off from the others but they could find somewhere safe and try to get information about what’s going on, and they’ll come looking for her once they’re out of the fighting won’t they? She starts to bite her lip but halts the gesture at the last minute, straightening from her slump instead and trying to speak decisively thought she doesn’t think she’s managing more than about a fair if that.

“Okay, um, I think we should go down to the road and try to get to the nearest town. We need to…what’s the term people always use…regroup! Yes, we need to do that. If we just run back there now we’ll have no idea what’s going on or who we should be helping since it seems like people I know have started doubling into, um, old, evil people. Plus,” she grimaces sheepishly at Rahne, “I don’t think I want to go anywhere near that place ever again so…road?” she cocks her head slightly at Rahne, trying to convey that she’s looking for her opinion here but not ready to concede any ruthless killing time. It was a lot easier just conveying nervousness…

[Rahne Sinclair]

(( ending here, re-picking up in Deepened Echoes of Harmonious Life ))