Minus Human

 


See here for more information on the Supernatural RP, or contact Maeglin, ArielButtercup or MissAusten with any questions.
 


Disclaimer: We tend to be a little more informal around here (as well as infernal): lax with customary RP rules, rough with our language, and generally sacrelicious. We ask only that you play nice, stick to SPN canon, don’t be (too) mean, and do everything in your power to make the game fun for everyone.

 
The following characters are cleared for this episode:
Elenna Fee
Georgie Gilmore
Alex Colt
Romulus Remington
Richard Ingram

It was dark, which didn’t surprise Lenna, and cold and she was still naked. Lenna tried to stand up but slammed into the bars hard enough that she fell back into the puddle in the stone ground. It took Lenna a moment to realize that the puddle was not water but her own vomit, blood and urine. She must have been here for quite a while.

“Rome?” Her voice was hoarse as if she had been screaming a lot. Can you hear me? Lenna was trying to find Rome in her mind but she knew he was not there, he was not in her mind. What if he… No!

Lenna shook her head, which was a bad idea it let her proper smell of the puddle and it made her throw up again. She had still claw marks and several other cuts on her body and some she couldn’t remember were from the fight with Caleb.
Suddenly Lenna remembered being tied to a table and electricity ran through her, into her feet and out of her hands, it was low enough to be insanely painful but not enough to kill her.

“No, please stop. Rome, help me please!” But it was completely silent around her no sounds except her sobbing.  Suddenly she wasn’t sure if not some of the cuts that covered her body she did to herself. Lenna curled up in a ball and let her mind wander, to better times… the car she got from Rome to her birthday… Vera… the kiss… her live felt like a distant memory, a dream maybe it was never her life? What if she never had this life? What if the boy she called Rome was nothing but an imaginary character she had made up. Suddenly something happened around her the bars of her cage started to heat up and at first she thought it was nice but then the warm bars got warmer and then hot. Lenna discovered that in the stone floor of her cage were also metal bars her feet wear small enough to fit between the bars but the heat was so hot.

“Oh God, please stop! P-L-E-A-S-E!”

Lenna felt her skin burn, smelt her flesh burn and saw the bars glow red. It took a long time until the bars were cold enough that she could curled up in a tight ball again. It was so crazy even though she had burns she was freezing.
For a while nothing happened and all Lenna could do was remember, remember books she had read, remember hunts she had done, remember the favourite picture Georgie had taken of her and Rome. It was pitch dark and Lenna had no idea how much had passed when suddenly she heard something… screams. “L-E-N-N-I-E!”

Lenna sat up so fast forgetting the metal bars above her she hit her head hard, so hard that she saw stars. “Rome!”

“That is right Miss Fee, your dear Mister Remington is in a lot of pain, don’t you want to help him? Just show us your powers, show us how they work.” It was a male voice but Lenna wasn’t sure to whom it belongs.

“I have no powers.”

“I see. Maybe I turn up the electricity running through his body.”

Lenna tried not to listen to Rome’s screams but it was impossible. “STOP IT! Here is that what you want?” Lenna lifted her hand and a small fire ball appeared. “Is that what you want?” Lenna yelled angry into the darkness. “Now stop hurting Rome.”

Time was a blur; Lenna had no idea if hours, days, weeks or months. Most of the times it was dark, cold and wet though not quiet, Lenna could always here screams from around her. Sometimes it were screams of insanity, sometimes screams of pain and Lenna slowly reached the point that she didn’t flinch anymore, her own screams have died down a while ago. For some time she had relived her entire live but even that ended, all Lenna was doing now was stare into nothingness.
 
“That is really not fair; I always meet the families that can be saved. And Nick hadn’t even a chance to be saved.” Just outside Lenna’s cage well a young looking Elenna Fee in a sassy t-shirt, jeans and her favorite purple Converse. Lenna knew that this must be a trick but then how could they know what she thought when she first met Rawson and found out that Andre is not a stranger Rawson was hunting but actually his brother. Lenna starred at this so similar copy of herself standing there so free but still so hurt by the thought knowing that about two years ago all of this started. She didn’t want to think it but a part of her felt like this was the fault of… well Rome and Rawson, she wasn’t a fugitive before she started traveling with Romulus and Rawson.
 
“Rome doesn’t need to be killed. Most of the time the host survives the possession. But if Rome’s body is injured he will suffer and maybe die. But like I said the chance that your brother comes out of this alive is not bad” The copy of Lenna outside went on, the broken real Lenna inside the cage was hurting so much. “Why are you doing this? Just kill me!” The real Lenna hid her face in her hands and started crying, okay she would have is she would not be so dehydrated.
 
"Would I kill him? Yes. If that's the only way I can free him, I'll do it without hesitation. There are things worse than that, and being trapped in your mind while a monster controlled your body? I'd say that counts as one. So would Rome. I know what he would want, and I owe him that much, at least." Rawson barked at her, the Elenna copy had disappeared and a Rawson copy -if it was not the real one since he was not captured back in the warehouse- had taken her place.
Something came over Lenna, she screamed and threw one fireball after the other at the cage barriers, she hadn’t realized that she had actually scratched the symbol of fire into her wrist. It increased her ability to collect fire, it wasn’t a surprise that several strong fireballs were jumping around her cage. She got several burns before she collapsed exhausted on the ground. “So why don’t you do me the same favor?” Lenna was so tired and didn’t understand why she was still alive or why Rawson was standing out there laughing about her breakdown.
Rawson didn’t say anything, he just laughed… Lenna didn’t know when he disappeared but at some point he left her alone in the dark again, he burns were hurting so much it wasn’t a surprise that every burn got infected.
 
"Well, if it isn't the too-little-too-late crew," Andre said, schooling Rome's features into a shark-like visage, all black eyes and toothy white grin.
"You've become more trouble than your worth, girl," he snarled. His face half in shadow, he closed his eyes but instead of the chandelier and household objects, vases, lamps, priceless painting, he had launched in her direction the first time, he slammed her around in the cage with a flick of his hand. Lenna felt bones break, cut appear and bruises form. Oh God please let this be the end. Let me die.

"Raws, don't leave her. Don't let her go..."
"There was a girl, there, right? Sh-she okay? Where'd she go?"
"She was cute, too.”
"C'mon, Raws. Help me out. She can't go after this thing alone it had freaking fish tail, right?" Rome, not Andre but Rome with all those cuts and bruises when she first met him just after she had exorcised Andre and he was free again, his voice was broken, hurt and scared. Rome kneeled down and looked at Lenna, she was curled up in a corner and didn’t move. "She was cute, too.” He repeated as he ran his hand through her dirty hair. "She was cute, too.” Just as if he was remembering her, as if she was dead…
 
It was dark again and Lenna was alone and so cold. “I know you are doing this to break me but I don’t care. We are all dead anyway, why should I care that you bring in a bunch of shapeshifters to tell me things I’ve heard before? I know this, I was there and when I wasn’t I still know. I know Rome cared about me when he was barely conscious. I know my thoughts, I know what I thoughts. I know that Andre was an ass and Raws well he is drastic. Just cut it out. I get it. Kill me! Just stop your fucking mind games.” Lenna didn’t know if anyone actually heard her, in the end she didn’t even know if her voice was even loud enough, or if she really said this our loud at all or just thought it.
 

Why are we here?

"Come on, Lennie, baby, it's only illegal if you get caught," Shifter-Rome said with a wink and a grin. Shifter-Lenna stuck her tongue out in dislike. “Lennie? That sounds like a five year old girl with pig tails.”
 
“Do you not get tired of switching from one to another? It must be tiring to talk to yourself.” Lenna -the real Elenna Abigail Fee- whispered. SWORD had changed the freezing cold into a boiling hot. Even though it was so dark that she could barely see the tip of her nose, oddly enough she was able to see the shapeshifter very clearly. The monster kept changing, which was very disgusting quite a large pile of shredded skin was next to Lenna’s cage. “I don’t need you to remind me of my friends. I know them and I remember what we have together.”
 
Shifter-Rome looked through the cage bars at Elenna, wondering.
 
“What on earth was so frakking dangerous about a hospital and a library that you managed to get cut.”
 
All those months ago Lenna had explain him what had happened, this time the Shifter-Rome just looked at her for several moments  -Lenna remembered telling him that it was just a stupid mistake- Shifter-Rome spent a few minutes laughing at her. Back then he made her sit down so he could take a look at the cut.

"You better not let Raws see this he'll have a frakking cow. I've got half a mind to never let you handle anything that might be remotely considered a weapon ever again, and that includes a knife and fork if you don't wake up and get a clue about weapon safety. They do have things called holsters, you know, and me and Raws both have some you can borrow. Now let's take a look before I send you back to school." Shifter-Rome warned.
 
“Last time Rome said this to me he forced me, despite my protests, to sit down on the toilet seat as he broke out the first aid kit and fixed me up.” Lenna mumbled, because of her dehydration her wasn’t able to sweat anymore. She felt her body temperature rising to a dangerous level.
 
 
In a safe place unheard from the prisoners, men in lab coats were taking notes, notes how this shapeshifter’s little tricks started to really hurt her. They saw how every time it talked to her she flinched. She hated that this thing was able to read the minds of her friends and make her remember what she has lost. On the note pad of one of the men who seemed to be the one making the decisions it said at the very bottom:
‘… she is breaking. Continue the procedure!’
 
 

“You looked upset. You are doing that adorable-little-girl-pouting-ready-to-cry thing that is totally weirding me out because it is such a stark change from your normal tough-as-nails attitude. When I'd first seen the look I thought you were faking it, but I’m an expert in faking it, and none of the signs are there. You can't play a player, and I wrote the book. It is just -Raws was right- a douche, but right- you are borderline schizo.” Shifter-Rome was leaning against a wall or something next to her cage and had his typical grin plastered all over his face.

The shifter-Rome was still sitting outside her cage.  "… and give me the gun. Lennie, I get all tingly when you take control like that."
 
Lenna tried to cover her ears, she was so weak. “Just stop it.”
 
"What? No. Lenna, you're coming." Shifter-Rome whispered in this desperate way he did. Lenna remembered how Rome’s pain was gone -well, ignored- and he was in Action-Rome mode. Nothing would stop him. “Do you remember how I took your hand as we walked, both for you and for myself: you looked even worse than I felt.”
 
I felt horrible, I never was so scared on a hunt before, ever!
 
"Come on, Lennie, I said and pulled you along. You're such a nerd," Shifter-Rome chided quietly.
 
“Do you remember when the Skin Walker had taken you?” The Shifter-Rome asked gentle. "You frakking son of a bitch!! Let go of her!" Shifter-Rome cried, raising his gun -a gun he suddenly had-, before the ultimatum registered.
 
"I need you to stay with these guys in the hospital."Lenna remembered that a pout formed immediately but she let Rome continue. "Tell them whatever you need to, you'll know what to say. You're a good liar, I know you are, you're the best," Shifter-Rome smiled fondly at the broken Lenna in the cage, like it was the highest compliment. It was, really. "We're getting out of town soon, but we won't leave you, I promise. Make sure these people are okay for us, yeah?"


Lenna remembered her reply to that "Why can't you?" she asked petulantly, again, she knew the answer back then and she knew the answer now just like the shifter.

"'Cause I gotta look after my retarded brother, that's why. You got this? I know you got this, chica."
Lenna had nodded sadly. Lenna knew that Rome wasn't sure whether this was because he had relegated her to babysitting, or separated her from he and Raws, or because she didn't like hospitals, because all of the above were true. Back then he pulled her into an embrace right then and there but the Shifter-Rome couldn’t do that even though Lenna wished nothing more to be hugged.

"You did good today, you know. You looked after everyone. Looked after me. Saved all our asses more times than I can count. I owe you big time for that, okay, sister? I'm proud of you." This wasn't his quick, salesman patter. This was genuine. Quiet, tender, for her ears only.
"As for the group--they're a good bunch of people. No way in hell we're leaving Elenna, kid can hardly look after herself. Georgie's hot, and handy with a gun, and anyway I think those two have started to be friends…” Shifter-Rome said heated and Lenna knew that Rome had said this to Rawson, as always Rawson wanted to dumb her… again.
 
“Why? Why are you doing this? What do you try to do? I told you I know nothing!” Lenna shouted as loud as she could!
 
“Are you finally ready to talk?” A dark voice asked, the Shifter-Rome changed and the guy back when she was taken by the witch hunters. Lenna looked up, it was the guy that Rome had shot in the knee caps.
 
“Do you have magical powers?” The guy snarled.
 
Lenna looked defeated. “I can manipulate the elements.”
 
“Oh she is talking. How do you manipulate the elements?”
 
“Greek symbols or elements combined with German spells.” Lenna knew that Rome was still alive because the shifter was still able to download information from him. But it has been a while that she was certain that the rest of her family was still alive.
 
“What can you do?”
 
“It is said that there were four guardians protecting the elements. I can use the elements of fire, earth, water and air. There is said to be a 5^th element, aether which I think is a combination of the four elements and by combining all elements in theory you can do everything. Creating and destroying. Aether is known as a very holy element, the material that God used to create the universe as we know it, and therefore, the essence of all living things. Quintessence allows the Guardian who possesses it a wide range of mystical abilities and talents. The person that can connect all four elements can bestow life just as easily as she can take it away with its destructive force. But that sounds crazy, it sounds Godlike.” Lenna didn’t even know anymore what she was saying; she was so cold, hungry and broken.
 
“These symbols, how do you use them? Carry them around on a piece of paper?” The guy even stunk like the disgusting witch hunter had.
 
“I draw them on my arm.” Lenna looked at her arm on which she had drawn symbols with her own blood.
 
“What is the symbol for aether?”
 

“There is no symbol for aether.” Lenna’s body started shivering and convulsed heavily. This was so bad, Lenna knew she shouldn’t have told them that but in a way she hoped they would give her something in return. And for once she wished they would stop letting her hear the others scream until their voices were horse.

Georgie had lost any track of time. She didn’t know what day it was, whether it was night or day, and she had no idea for how long she has been in this dark room without a window. There was only one source of light coming from the lamp on the ceiling, which almost blinded her everytime she looked up. There were strange men in lab coats around her, murmuring something to each other or quietly observing her and taking notes. Georgie was always very good in staying composed so they still experienced difficulties tearing down that wall around her and finally crack her, which they tried by hurting her friends, whose pain was immediately transferring onto her. She had no idea for how long this had been going on and for how long her friends were tortured, but it felt like endless, never-ending days of pain, anger, desperation and hopelessness. Georgie wasn’t sure whose emotions she received at what time, she assumed that she felt everyone’s emotions all mixed up at the same time, which made it almost unbearable for her. The strangers around her hadn’t completely cracked her yet, though. Mostly, she just lay on a chair, attached with tight straps so that she had no chance to escape. However, she didn’t know how much more she could take before the torturing of her friends would finally break her down, she was sure the people around her did everything in their power to make that happen.

“How do you feel?”, she heard a rough voice next to her. The sarcasm in the man’s voice was impossible to overhear.

“She doesn’t talk”, another voice said.

“She will talk eventually, believe me.” The man who had asked her how she felt stood very close to her but Georgie’s head was turned to the other direction.
“It must be truly gruesome, being able to feel what your dear, dear friends feel as they get tortured in the other rooms … You do feel it, don’t you?”

Georgie didn’t respond, she refused to talk.

“It’s interesting”, she heard another deep voice somewhere in a dark corner of the room. “Her powers would match well with the powers of one of our other contestants.”

The people in the room laughed cynically at the word ‘contestant’. That’s what Georgie, Lenna, Rome and Richard were in this situation. A group of contestants stuck in an arena, while an audience watched to see who was strongest and who would survive.

“If we would pair up her power with the power of the other person, it would bring an incredible result, I’m sure of that.”

“Well”, the voice right next to Georgie said. “That depends on her cooperation and how strong her power really is. So far she tries to hide it, but we all know she can’t keep it up forever. Isn’t that right, Miss Gilmore?”

Georgie still didn’t answer.

“I guess we have to torture her friends a little more, then. So long until she cracks, and then we can determine what we can do with her power and how we proceed from there but there certainly is some potential…”

(ooc: Thanks to Ariel for this suggestion)

The fire from the burning corpse lit up the room as Richard turned and left. He pulled out the notebook from his pocket and added another score to his tally, nodding with satisfaction. Another job done. Another ghost sent back to Erebus.

Another step closer to freedom.

It had been several days now since Richard had woken up in a roadside ditch with nothing but his clothes, notebook and a headache. It hadn’t taken him long to realise he seemed to have lost several months of time, something probably due to a messed up hunt. But Richard had more important things to worry about than some missing months.

His quota was almost at its end. But so too was his deadline. It was now a race to fulfil the former before the latter overtook him. His life was at stake. Once he was done, either he would be free to go back and discover the truth… or it wouldn’t matter.

Richard paused and rubbed his temple. Since waking up he’d been suffering from frequent headaches, no doubt liked with his memory loss. So far they hadn’t affected him during a hunt. He just prayed that it would continue.

“Hey, Colt, you off your crutches?” Alex gave the other agent a narrow-eyed look that very much implied he was wondering why the other man was speaking to him at all. He suspected the man was probably just disappointed that there were no crutches to kick out from underneath him, but that may have been unfair. Not everyone working at SWORD was a giant dick. The man didn’t seem to notice the look, or he chalked it up to Alex’s usually taciturn nature. “And no boot? Dude, you lucked out. My mom was on one of those things for months when she broke her foot.” Alex managed a smile.

“Yeah… guess I was lucky. Any problems?” he asked, stepping out of the way as the man went to the keypad outside the door to the cellblock and clocked out.

“Nah, man, just business as usual.” Alex frowned. The guy talked like a surfer. It was somewhat confusing, really, given that he was wearing body armor, black clothes, and was carrying the standard issue assault rifle, plus a small sidearm. They took guarding prisoners seriously, did SWORD. And the guns were not full of tranquilizers like what they’d used to bring down the group they’d brought in from the warehouse. “Left you my sudoku. One of ‘em was complaining about that little whistle thing of yours.”

“Since when do we care what the prisoners complain about?” Surfer guy looked momentarily confused, then shook his head.

“Oh, no, I mean one of the SWORD guys. Like… the scientists? Or maybe it was one of the interrogators.” He thought for about fifteen seconds and then shrugged. “Dunno, man, but he was pissed. Dude’s got some serious rage issues…” He shook his head while Alex tried not to laugh at the way he was talking. “Anyway. Better play it safe, you know? Don’t want your other foot broken,” the man said with a laugh. Alex laughed along, although he’d have liked to take that penny whistle and shoved it up the guy’s nose. The story of how Natalie had broken his foot by dropping a gun case on it had spread fast—as had his missed shot. Again. Everyone seemed to find it hilarious all out of proportion.

After the other guard had left, Alex replaced him, sitting just inside the cellblock door with a book of sudoku puzzles that he had no desire to even attempt. He was supposed to get up and patrol periodically, just to make sure that no one was having any fun (or escaping) as if this had ever actually happened. No one got out of the SWORD basement unless they were let out.

Before very long, Alex got bored and amused himself by balancing the chair back on two legs. When that became less than amusing, he stood and paced for awhile, and then wandered down the row of cells. Most everyone was quiet for the moment, for which he was grateful, because his conscience was easy to ignore when everyone was quiet and he could pretend they were just ordinary prisoners being kept in ordinary cells.

It took so long to make it to one end of the cellblock that he was bored by the time he got there. He wasn’t used to walking slowly or taking his time, but his foot was killing him. The doctors had cleared him to ditch the stupid crutches if he wore a boot, but he didn’t like the boot. It was big and clunky and he could hardly do more than waddle along with it on, so he’d left it back at his apartment. Unfortunately, walking without it was almost as annoying as walking with it on would have been—less because his movement was hampered, and more because his foot still didn’t bear his full weight very well. He grumbled about it to himself and paused in his slow pacing, leaning against the wall and settling all his weight onto his good foot.

The sudoku was all the way back at the table, so he pulled the penny whistle out instead and played it very softly, listening intently to the quiet notes. They didn’t even begin to fill the empty concrete space, which was probably a good thing. In full sound, the whistle’s music would have bounded off the walls and someone probably would have yelled at him or come out and broken the thing. It was really amazing how many people hated music. Amazing and fantastic because it made them so much easier to annoy. Still, if he ever wanted to go in the field again, he’d decided he’d better not make any earnest attempts to piss people off. He did it enough on accident as it was. And, though it was silent now, he was acquainted enough with the unpleasantness that went on down here that he very much did not want to spend the rest of his career guarding prisoners. He’d had the occasional mutinous thought, lately, and that route could end only in untold amounts of inconvenience. No, it would be far easier to get back to the field and do his real job.

Rome woke feeling very weak and shaky, and hurting, but distantly. He seemed to remember that he ought to be panicked, but it was like maybe a bad dream.

He was in a bed. Bright light. Hospital? His head pounded, and he groaned audibly.

"Easy, son," said a voice, not ungentle, and Rome fell back to the bed.

"Wh--where am I? Where are my--"

"Clothes? They were damaged in the accident."

Accident? That sounded right. He hurt all over.

"Yyeah," he said slowly, thinking he was forgetting something. But thinking hurt. He closed his eyes. He giggled. "I feel funny."

"Drugs for the pain."

That, too, sounded legit, so Rome wasn't concerned. He drifted off.

…

He was in a room, strapped to an operating table. There was blood everywhere there wasn’t crisp clean hospital whiteness. He was screaming, but not quite screaming, more like moaning, hissing, whimpering, like he had been screaming for so long he had lost the strength.

Anyway, he couldn’t really scream: there was a heavy mask on his face, pinning his head, and something filling his mouth, tubes or something, down his throat. His eyes felt stapled open, and there were faces looming. Clean crisp suits and hospital masks.

Above him there was a—screen, a flickering projection, and on it—Lennie? And Georgie, Allison, Raws—? In that stupid bar in Gallup, what—how—

Were those his memories? Up on that screen? Was he literally—it was literally following him to the car and the hotel room with Allison when he—Oh God, this had to be a dream. He was dreaming.

The pain made certain he knew he wasn’t dreaming, and though his throat was clogged, he screamed.

…

Rome woke.

“Easy, kid,” said a not ungentle voice. “You had an accident.”

“Oh,” Rome said, his voice rasping slightly. He felt very weak, like his limbs had no strength. He looked down at himself. He was covered in bandages, and—strange—he seemed thinner than when he last looked down at himself? Where had his sweet bod up and gone off to? He worked hard for that! “How long’ve I been asleep?” he wondered.

“You were in a coma. You’ll recover, it’s all right.”

“Oh. My—”

“Car? Totaled, I’m afraid.”

“Oh. Gonna sleep now.”

“It’s probably the drugs. For the pain. You want me to juice you up again?”

“Yeah, please.” Rome closed his eyes. Now he was dreaming up distant screams. He wanted them to stop.

…

They seemed interested in his relationships with Georgie and with Lenna, especially. The problem was, strapped to that table with his mouth full of tubes and something he realized was a bite guard so he wouldn’t bite off his tongue when they ran stinging electricity through his brain, they asked him questions but they didn’t want him to talk. They tortured him for information but all they had to do was mention a thing and the image came up on the screen. It was literally one of those stupid old fashioned actual projector screens, only it was hooked up to his brain (or his eyes?) and it showed everything.

Everything, like, him sitting on the toilet in a dirty gas station everything.

Voices:

This kid’s running enough power we don’t even have to plug him in!

Just make sure he gets enough happy juice when we’re done. Won’t remember a thing!

This kid’s mind is like a sieve. Hell, I wish Andre worked for us, I’d have him break them in every time.

Okay, we’ve got enough footage for Prisoner 86.

He can take a bit more. We need to get a sample for Prisoner 91.

“Tell me about your sexual exploits,” was the next demand, sounding tired and weird and why was some creepy old dude in a mask in a freaky hospital asking him this?!

But his body betrayed him, and even managed to respond as Rome remembered that time with Georgie, and that time with Allison, and that time with Jennifer, and the Riley twins, and Lexie, and that time with Margaret, and Sally, and Ashley—

…

Rome woke, sore from head to toe. He couldn’t move. He could barely speak.

“Easy, kid, you’ve had an accident.”

“I heard screaming,” he managed.

“I think you might have dreamed that, kid.”

“Where are my f—”

“Phone? It’s here, we’ve called your parents. They’re on their way.”

“Oh. Good.”

"Ready, Wendy?" Shifter-Georgie asked, Lenna remember that she had asked this before they jump out of Aly’s hospital room so many months back.
 
"You bet, Peter!" Lenna mumbled, it hurt her so much to see Georgie, to see her heart chosen sister. But the worst pain was that she never knew if the people she saw were her real friends or just imagined or even worse shapeshifter or just dreams.
 
“Lennie, when you kissed me and squeaked like a girl, but did not try to pull away, and even moaned into the kiss. It felt--wonderful, it was as perfect as it was freaky and wrong and you’re like my sister, sister with benefits, true love, I don't have a true love I don't get a true love, just a friend, but home--it felt like coming home. It felt like I had kissed you before. It felt like I was where I belonged, where I should have been all along.” Shifter-Rome whispered terribly like the real Rome to her. Lenna had stopped crying, stopped begging to kill her, all she did was being curled up, she had stopped praying, she just stopped being, very distantly she remembered Rome’s lips on hers, she remembered how she felt, how good it felt, how right it felt but the memory was not like something that had happened more like a dream you once had. She had so many memories they had rushed through her head in the beginning, but now all those wonderful memories seemed like nothing but a dream. Dreams of a different live. A live that was never real.
She was broken and they knew it was the moment of the truths. Lenna had told them all she knew and they had done their homework. They had strapped her to one of those hospital operation tables, her right arm was stretched out and even tighter strapped to the table. So many people in lab coats, masks, gloves and looking like a surgeon/mad-scientist were around her. Lenna was fully awake when they cut all layers of her skin on her wrist and flapped it open so that her veins and tendons were exposed. Lenna starred at her bloody arm.
 
“She is not even flinching, Sir?”
 
“If you cannot handle it leave!” The person in charge said strictly to the nurse. “In all research it said she needs to see the implantation, she needs to accept the implant.”
 
He placed a piece of gold, very thin layer of it right between the muscles on her veins that went towards her heart.
 
“I did try Rome. I tried to fight them but I failed. All I can do now is hope I die quickly and then I see them again, my mum, my dad, my brother and one day the boy I love, the sister-by-choice, hell even my car. I’m sorry but I can’t anymore, I don’t have the strength to fight anymore.”
 

Lenna stared blankly at her arm, her in blood covered arm, in which they have just implanted a piece of gold, it felt oddly warm and this warmth was spreading very slowly up her arm but with that she felt that something in her was changing. She had all those memories but it all didn’t seem real. It seemed as if Elenna Fee was leaving her own body and left an empty shell. And she didn’t know how to help herself except to accept the warmth and power(?) running through her body from the piece of metal in her wrist.

"Raws!" He screamed--or would have screamed, if he could use his mouth--seeing his brother in the mass of faces standing over him. Or was that just a projection from his mind? He didn't know anymore. He burst into tears. Rawson, please help me. I gotta get out. Gotta find G, and--chica--fuck, Elenna, you know her name!

He heard sparks, and a few crashes. People falling.

"Whoa!" said a voice. "Okay, get out of here, you're making him wild."

"Thought that was what you wanted? More power?"

(No, Raws, don't leave me!)

"Not when it starts chucking my technicians around the room! Get me some new lights!"

He didn't really understand what was going on through the pain.

...

Rome woke. He was in an unfamiliar room: white, clean, like a hospital. There was a nurse (a damn fine one), and some big guy with a gun.

He started awake, trying to sit up, trying to move.

"Easy, Mr. Remington, you're all right. Just lie still."

"Wh-where am I? Who's--why is he here?"

Rome remembered vaguely being on the run from the law? Or had he dreamed that?

"He's here to protect you. You were attacked."

"Oh," Rome said. That sounded legit. He relaxed.

"Did I come in with anyone?"

"No."

Rome frowned, but then there was a rush of warmth settling over his brain like a cloud, and he knew no more.

...

"Protect yourself."

The command kept pounding into his head along with the pain. The werewolf was muzzled, but it still had strength, and claws, and what kind of frakked up dream had him cage fighting a werewolf?!

"Protect yourself."

With what? He was naked, and anyway he was strapped to a wheelchair. He couldn't even scream (maybe he had forgotten how).

"Protect yours--"

There was a rush, a VOOOM! that shook the very earth, made lights pop out, and people scream. Apparently, it was coming from him, like a shockwave, a bubble of death.

With a yelp like a kicked puppy, the werewolf dropped. For one beautiful, glorious second, Rome didn't hurt anymore. Then the lights went out.

...

Rome sniffled awake, unable to breathe through his nose, which felt broken. Actually, his whole body felt broken. There better have been a really good party at the other end of this--what had happened? Was he in an accident?

He blinked awake. Light, bright white, clean light. He shivered, shaking off a bad dream.

His head hurt. He moaned softly.

A nurse turned to him. "Hello, Mr. Remington. You're all right, now, just lie back and close your eyes."

"Where--"

"You're in the hospital. Your family's on their way."

"Oh. Good. What--"

"You were attacked."

"Oh. Who's--"

"He's here to protect you."

"Oh."

"You should sleep."

"Okay."

There was a certain monotony to guard duty that Alex was in no way equipped to deal with. It was boring in a way that didn’t even approach sitting for hours on end waiting for a target to show up. He had infinite patience and could sit or stand still for hours on end when he had something to shoot at, but when all that happened was that every day or every other day they took one or another of the prisoners from their cells to another room and then brought them back later looking a little worse-for-wear but otherwise unchanged, he found it exceptionally difficult to maintain any patience. Also, some days he was forced to interact with Natalie, who was playing “doctor” these days (which was, quite frankly, horrifying).

Some days were worse than others. Some days, they took the Remington kid from his cell and carted him off for anywhere from a couple hours to almost all of Alex’s shift. Once or twice, someone in a labcoat came rushing back through the cells looking panicked in a way that practically screamed “Did not think this through”. Only once, the creep who’d threatened Alex with strangling came through with a doctor and left soon thereafter, trailing the smell of burning things. It was the most intriguing thing that had happened in Alex’s recent memory, but he never did find out what had happened, only that it had to do with the Remington kid.

Come to think of it, that, too, was a problem. At some point he’d started referring to the guy as “that Remington kid” and not “super freak” or “freak of nature” or “complete mutant”. And if he’d been spending more time at the range and the bar than he had three months ago, no one seemed to notice or care as long as he could do his job.

Today, guard duty was inside one of the cells. He watched them bring Remington back from wherever they’d had him, sporting a few new wounds that he definitely hadn’t had when he’d left the room earlier. Alex started to frown and then stopped himself. Stop it, Colt, you’re settin’ yourself up for a whole world of hurt… he thought to himself, and wiped the frown off his face by the time Natalie turned to make sure he was doing his job and preventing the unconscious prisoner from fleeing the premises. He offered her a snarky grin and rolled his eyes.

There was a knock at the door and Alex started, whipping around with his gun raised, ready to smash someone in the face with it.

“At ease… Bosses want to speak to you, ma’am,” the man who’d just looked around the door said, eyeing Alex until he lowered the butt of the gun he was holding.

“…Now?” Natalie asked in disbelief, and the man shrugged. She made a snarling noise and whirled to look at Alex. “You. No talking. No shooting things, no interacting with the prisoner, no screwing everything up with one of your stupid tricks.” Alex blinked at her. She glared at him for a moment longer and then stormed off into the hall, leaving Alex with one silent, unconscious, beaten-half-to-hell prisoner.

Rawson's eyes were black, which at least made the torture make sense.

(Rome tried not to see that everyone else's eyes were black, and that meant either they were all demons or he was making this up so that Raws wasn't torturing him.

Please, stop! he demanded, and the power would go off in the room. People would go flying. He exploded a guy's head once, maybe, unless that was his own head.

What did you do with Lenna? And Georgie? And Richard and Raws and Caleb? They were turning them all into monsters. He saw what they did, the mark they gave Lenna, the gold they put on her body. He saw what they injected G with and it made him uncomfortable in ways he didn't expect. He saw Hades devouring Richard, and he wasn't sure what was real anymore or if this was something he had invented inside a padded cell. He could hear their screams, though, he could smell their blood. How did he know all this? The power was too much. His pulsing brain felt too heavy for his neck.

...

He woke. Bright white light. Hospital? How did he get here? Where were--um--his--the people he came in with?

Definitely a hospital. Trays and medicines and tubes and bandages. He wasn't alone. Someone should be with him, but he must have hit his head harder than he thought because he wasn't sure who should be by his hospital bed. He remembered once Raws got a concussion and called mom "Mufasa."

Wait, who was Raws?

There was someone standing there. A vague, big shape. Slightly scary, maybe, but Rome wasn't sure he could feel more shitty than he already felt. Maybe it was a nurse, or whoever was supposed to be sitting with him. He was thirsty. "C'n I've some water?"

As soon as Natalie left, Alex moved to lean nonchalantly on the wall, arms crossed over his chest.  He frowned and picked at a hangnail, but gave up when the kid showed signs of waking up.  Was he supposed to be doing that?  Alex glanced uneasily at the door as Remington shifted and opened his eyes.  His eyes were all unfocused and he looked confused, so Alex stood still and again at a very sloppy, slouchy version of attention, hoping he'd just go back to sleep or something.

C'n I've some water?

Alex's frown deepened.  On the one hand, it was possible the kid would be more cooperative (and less in danger of therefore having his brain fried) if he thought they were good guys.  On the other hand, Natalie would probably re-break his foot for him if he so much as blinked at Remington.

But he looked really uncomfortable, and so loopy he wouldn't remember a thing later on anyway.  Come to that, Alex had heard him before when he'd woken up, and it'd always been questions about where he was, and where the others were, or if someone had been brought in with him, and if his family knew where he was.  It wasn't 'Can I have some water'.

In short, it made Alex squirm a little that Remington was apparently so brain-fried that he wasn't asking the usual questions (and was that permanent or not?) and that instead, all he wanted was water.  Alex could get him water without communicating.  He stalked around the edge of the room to a sink-- they were apparently keeping up this charade that they were all in a hospital-- and snatched one of the flimsy plastic cups next to it.  He ran some water into the cup and took it over to Remington, holding it out silently before realizing that the kid was in no shape to actually take the cup.  He went back to the sink and grabbed a straw (there were straws.  They were really going all out on their little deception).

Dammit.  Dammit.  Dammit dammit sonuva-- dammit.  He sighed, still did not speak, and kicked at a button on the hospital bed that cranked up the back of it so Remington was sort of sitting up.  He held the cup where the kid could reach the straw and hoped that Natalie wasn't about to walk in an break his face.

It was a few months since the warehouse incident. It was the first time Lenna woke up in a room and not the dark hole they used to keep her. She felt different… her right wrist was in real pain and was in bandages. She took of the bandage and saw the mark on her wrist. It looked odd… Lenna ran her fingers over it and noticed the bumps underneath her skin… the skin was so hot. A rush of energy ran through her fingers and she stopped worrying about her wrist. Her body didn’t hurt anymore she felt fine, her hair was nicely combed and she was wearing proper clothes, black boots, dark jeans and a black t-shirt under a black leather jacket, she looked different but she wasn’t sure what that meant. Lenna looked in the mirror and studied her face, she looked normal, healthy and alive.

“Do you like what you see, Agent Keres?” Agent Hollyfield snarled behind her. Lenna looked for a while quietly at him in the mirror and then nodded.

“I do. Why am I here?”

“Well my dear come with me and I show you. You have been asleep for a long time.” Agent Hollyfield led the young girl into a room that was full of monitors showing the prisoners. “Those three are your newest toys. Do with them whatever you want just don’t kill them.”

Lenna studied the monitors for a very long time and then nodded silently again. She felt a little bit dizzy as if you would feel when you do something you know is wrong and you shouldn’t do it but still do it. Hollyfield let her out of the room handed her a new ID and left her in the hallway, her ID would open her doors and at the same time make sure she only saw what she was suppose to see. Lenna didn’t know where she was going and was rather surprised to find herself outside.

“Agent? Please follow me.” A man dressed in a black uniform had walked towards her and showed her to the door out.

“Agent Keres.” She said with an authoritarian undertone in her voice. 

He nodded apologetic and then opened the car door for her. Keres climbed into the backseat and found a bag with an ID badge saying she was FBI, a gun and several different extra magazines with different types of bullets and some other hunters stuff. “Where to?”

“The local bar, and no talking I’m not into talking!” Keres mumbled as she studied the news on the laptop that was also in her bag. It did not look as if there was anything she could practice her powers on. When the car stopped she got out and walked straight in the bar. “Vodka Redbull and keep it coming.”

Keres took off her sun glasses and looked at the blonde man sitting at the bar. Something made Keres think she knew him but she didn’t. She wasn’t long in the bar but long enough so that she had several Vodka-Redbull. Keres got bored quickly and longed to test her powers so she got up and went back to her car and back to the headquarters of SWORD. She walked all the way down to the cells and stood in front of the cell that would have scared a girl a few months ago the most… Caleb’s cell.

“Hey, mutt! Get the fuck up!” Keres barked, it was dark but her eyes were glowing bright blue. Caleb barely lifted his head but he looked at the woman standing outside his cell. “You think this was bad how does this feel?” She lifted her hands as if she was praying and then she turned them around and pushed the air out Caleb’s cell within seconds he was gasping for air. And it felt so good to see Caleb turn blue…


I can see in darkness? Interesting.

Water. Rome groaned at the taste, like he had never tasted water before. "Thanks," he told the figure, finally looking at him for the first time. "Who are you? What h-happened?"

The guy looked nervous, and said nothing for a long time.

"Where am I?" he repeated, feeling slow and strange. He hurt all over, and why wasn't this person talking to him?

"Hospital."

"Who are you? Besides Quiet...McSilent...face-pants?"

"Just--er--go back to sleep?"

Rome felt weird, drugged, and he was probably drooling. He slept.

Alex frowned as Remington went right back to sleep. What the happy hell was with "Quiet McSilent Face-pants"? Where had he even come up with that nonsense?

He was still staring in consternation at the kid when Natalie opened the door and came back in. She looked at him and arched her eyebrows, glancing significantly at the cup of water Alex was still holding.

"I didn't think you'd want him, you know, dying of thirst or something," Alex explained. "Also my shift is over, so if you don't mind--" he moved to slip past Natalie and she grabbed his elbow. "Look, all I told him was that he was in the hospital and to go back to sleep, and he did."

"Did he ask about the others?" Alex set his jaw and then forced himself to stop, lest Natalie pick up on his unease. Instead, he shook his head.

"Just asked for water, and where he was, and who I was-- No, of course I didn't tell him, do you think I'm stupid?" Natalie's look implied she very much did think he was stupid, but she let him go.

-----

He contrived, between extra training sessions and more frequent trips to the local bar, to not think about any of it for a week, until he found himself on guard duty again.

Again, Natalie left, although this time it seemed to be because she was bored.

Again, the kid (looking beat all to hell all over again) woke up and blinked blearily at him, and again, Alex stood silently and watched him. He went to the sink before the kid had even asked and returned with a cup of water and a straw, which he held out wordlessly.

"Who are you?" Remington asked after he'd had some of the water. "What happened?" It was like deja vu all over again. Alex didn't answer, and Remington went silent. "Where am I?" he asked, eventually, and Alex snorted softly.

"Hospital," Alex told him confidently.

"Oh. 'N who're you, Cowboy Boots?" Alex frowned.

"Go back to sleep," he said, instead of answering the question. Cowboy Boots? Were ridiculous nicknames a thing with this kid?

"Yeah, okay," Remington answered, which made Alex frown harder-- this kid could quite effectively mow down an entire room of people, had very nearly brought down an entire warehouse. He should be fighting with them, and he was just meekly taking directions from a person who even a nitwit would realize was in no way compatible with 'hospital'. Not that Alex was complaining-- he was in no mood to pick fights with people who could kill him without so much as a word.

But he was going to be spending a lot of time at the range and the gym and the bar, because they did not pay him enough to deal with this kind of shit.

He didn't know why they were hurting him. He didn't know where he was or why he was scared. He didn't recognize faces. Literally--they didn't have faces. He couldn't remember his own face.

He couldn't remember his own name.

He was in a wheelchair. They were going somewhere. His head hung down, a pool of bloody drool on his thigh. He was naked. His penis looked--he remembered how that looked--it was red, but limp, and soaked with lube unless that was drool, too. It looked like it did after rough sex, honestly, though he couldn't remember any faces. He felt dirty, looking at it, though he couldn't remember why. His head bobbed up.

"He's awake. Put him in."

He was wheeled into a cage. Like, a wrestling cage, and there was someone else there, too. Did they expect him to fight? He didn't even remember if he was right-handed or left-handed. Anyway, his wrists were strapped to the chair.

The person in the cage with him was a man. The face looked familiar, but he couldn't place it. The man smiled: all teeth. Big sharp what-the-fuck those aren't human teeth even though he wasn't sure what kind of teeth were normal for a human. He jerked back instinctively, and he could almost see the space bending around him to knock the teeth-man back a few paces, like he'd been punched. The teeth shook its head and came after him again.

He hit him again, harder. Teeth snarled and lunged.

Rome screamed and flinched, ducking back, so he didn't see what happened that time, but there were cries and sparks and the sound of splattering carnage, and then silence, and when he opened his eyes everything was dark. He was tired, his head dropping again, and he felt something warm running down his nose.

When men came with flashlights and guns, and they moved his wheelchair again, all Rome could see was blood splattered everywhere. It wasn't his blood. Where had Teeth gone?

...

He woke, blinking up at a white, clean ceiling. He smelled antiseptic, heard machines beeping inanely. Hospital?

He looked around, head feeling fuzzy and heavy though he didn't hurt particularly much. He tried to swallow, but his throat was dry. "W-water?" he rasped, to no one in particular, not sure if he was alone or not.

Agent Keres stood there and just watched the man on the bed. She had heard his question but did she care no not really. She was wearing a dark gray dress, and she knew that the body she had used to hate dressing up but Keres loved it. It was fun. She was lost in thoughts but he must have asked again for water she felt herself move out of the shadow and give the kid some ice chips. He didn’t really seem to notice. Her eyes shining beautifully ice blue.
 
“You have been a real pain in my ass.” Keres flicked her hand and several small fireballs appeared circling Rome and then vanished. “You want water, here have some water.” Another flicker of her hand and Rome was surrounded by water just like his brother had been so many years ago, but Keres let the water disappeared just moments later and left Rome just as dry as he was before. She stepped closer to Rome, the air was vibrating around her and she was buzzing off energy. She rubbed her wristed absent.
 
“You know she would have run away with you. She would have gone to the end of the world but you had to pick up all those strays and create one big happy Hunter family. You should have left it the way it was and you two would have killed each other at some point.”
 
She was standing right to Rome’s bed, the air was not just vibrating anymore water drops forms in mid air, little flames sizzled at the metal bits in the room, and in several places little tornadoes in corners. But that was not magical, more the soft glow of ice blue that surrounded all of this. At least she saw it.
She poked Rome’s shoulder slightly to make sure she had his attention and then tapped ...— .. ... .. ——— —. ··——·· to ask the question she was dying to ask…
 
What the fuck was that?
 
She stepped away from Rome, it made her angry that this had happened. She wanted to hurt him, she snipped her fingers and the temperature in the room rose to a boiling point.

---

...— .. ... .. ——— —. ··——··   "Vision?"

Keres knew that the temperature would eventually get back to normal, but right now it just wasn’t as much fun as she thought it would be to play with her body’s so called family. She flicked open the laptop that someone had given her. She loved the reflection of the blue eyes before the screen popped to live.

“Let’s see...” Keres flipped through the local news until she found something. “This one...” Keres grinned evil as she printed of the articles about several different children that killed their parents, or rather children whose mothers have died slowly after the fathers had died in a sudden accident. “Changelings!”

Keres went and got her weapons, several guns with different types of bullets, knifes and not to mention a flamethrower. This would be an easy job. It didn’t take her long to find the changeling-children in their foster families. Without questioning it Keres went in at night and burnt the changelings in their bed while they were sleeping, she got in and out without anyone seeing her and the foster parents would wake up to find the children burnt in their beds.

“Where have you been the last five days?” Agent Holyfield snarled in his cold voice when she came back.

“Out! Hunting, as you want me to be.” Keres snapped back.

“What did you hunt?”

“Changelings.”

“What about the real children?”
“Not a problem. I’ve taken care of them, hence the shovel.” Keres replied coldly.

“You killed humans?”

“What was I suppose to do? Bother to exchange them, so that those brats can tell the tale? Not to mention the mother changeling. I shot them and then buried them in the local cemetery. No one will ever find them.” Keres turned around, proud and satisfied with her current hunt, when she suddenly felt as if somebody hit her in the head. She fell on the floor, covering her eyes from the bright artificial light.

“What have I done?” Lenna mumbled between sobs. Several low agents came running and dragged Lenna back in her cell. The young hunter was gone for over a week.

“This is a good sign!” Holyfield grinned as he watched the young witch been locked up in her cell again. “Continue with the treatment. We will turn her completely, she still has to get the little eye issue under control, if we want her to be trusted by her friends again.”

“Yes Sir.”

As they were ordered they continued the treatment. Lenna got dumped in boiling water in her cage just to be left hanging in midair of a freezing cold room. It didn’t take her long to be unconscious and drifting off into a different world, a different time, a different life.

Gimme Shelter - Dream wrote:Gimme Shelter
Rome wasn't really surprised to be met with a gun as the door opened, but he was surprised at the face holding the weapon.
"Whoa, who the frack are you?"
"Rome?" Came a high-pitched squeal from somewhere within the room, and then there was a flash, and then suddenly a small brunette was plastered to his chest like a starfish on a clam.
"Holy Jesus, Lennie! What the hell!" It wasn't a question. It was a statement. She looked up at him, slightly embarrassed, but he tousled her hair to let her know it was all right. "Good to see you, again, too, chica."
“I assume you're not a bad guy because Elenna's pretty paranoid about that sort of thing, and I'm guessing you're a hunter, too, because I can't think of a better reason to hold a whisky flask like a weapon.” Rome says to Caleb who he just met.
Lenna looked happy when Rome and Raws rejoined the group.
"Don't worry, Lennie, now the Remingtons are back in town we've got plenty of guns. You can drive the getaway car, how's that sound?" But he didn't let go of where he was pressing Elenna under his arm. Without realizing it, he'd gone and developed an overly-protective-big-brother-complex on this one. Add that to his post-traumatic-stress-syndrome, co-dependency on his twin, and the fact that what sent them back here was a dream about--well, something he certainly wasn't going to talk about right now, and he was one fry short of a Happy Meal these days. Wow.
“What if they catch you? Or even worse?” She whispered, not sure if the others really should here her worries.
"Give me some credit, here, chica, I wasn't actually planning on running out there waving my arms around," he said, squeezing her once more and then releasing her before it got awkward.
"Yeah, then you'd be in the slammer, too, and I'm telling you, girl, orange is not your color." He stared at her hard. "It was just a fluke thing, Elenna, you couldn't have known. Anyway, it was lucky, because then we'd have two damsels in distress to deal with." He grinned until she half-smiled back.
She poked Rome slightly to make sure she had his attention and tapped •••— •• ••• •• ——— —• ••——••  on his shoulder to ask the question she was dying to ask.
Elenna wanted to talk about him having visions again. He wasn't exactly in a care-and-share mood about the whole thing (but when was he ever?) but she deserved to know, and could probably help. Or would read her books until she could. What a girl. Anyway, they hadn't had a moment's peace alone until she walked outside with this Delta force guy she hardly knew and he wasn't allowed to go along with her. Who was going to protect her, then, huh? And since when the hell did she get so independent?
I wonder if he cares at all, for me. They left to suddenly, he didn’t even fight me when I said I stay here and then they come back without a word of explanation. Not even for me. Maybe the Remington/Fee time is over. Maybe it is time to move on after all they know now enough about hunting to survive without me.
"Not bad, Elenna. We'll get you some ice for that back with the others," Caleb stated.
“They won’t kill me, I’ve heard them to often yelling at each other. That is their way to say I love you.” Lenna said smiling while her nose was still bleeding.
"What the hell were you thinking, kid?" he asked her gently. "Don't think you'll need stitches, but, look, you're ugly enough," he teased, "doesn't mean you gotta go picking fights and getting your face all busted up."
He dressed the wounds--a band-aid and some ice was all it needed, but it just looked bad, and that upset him more than he thought was possible--before allowing anyone to even think about talking about what was going on at the hospital...but he did hurry.
"Okay, chica, good as new," he said, patting her shoulder. "And play nice with the other kids next time."
Now he wheeled on Caleb. "What the hell happened, and what the hell are we doing next?"
"What happened was we saw them moving your buddy right the Hell now and ran into two Feds on the way out of the hospital. I dealt with one, Elenna dealt with the other. If I'd had to deal with both, we'd have two dead Feds to our names too. She's a big girl, she can clearly handle herself. What we're gonna do now is calm down, loosen our sphincters a little and go save your good buddy the FBI Agent," Caleb answered calmly, his voice rock steady, tone hard as steel.
“It was my fault. I convinced Caleb to go back into the hospital. I threatened him that I would go alone; I didn’t even know why I wanted to go. I guess because I am not really useful in this job. And don’t tell me again that you need someone to drive that is so not what I just want to do. When we saw on the security monitors that they are moving Aly now I called you, um you did listen what I said right? I told you since forever that you have to stop keeping me out of all the fighting I get rusty.”
Lenna took Rome by his arm and pulled him away from Caleb. He turned around to her.
“You are not supposed to look like this Lennie.” Rome said quiet, not really for the others to hear.
"Lenna, you did well--really well. You didn't hurt anyone beyond a few bruises, maybe a cracked rib, but probably not. I've been shot with a vest before. It isn't fun, and you're sore for a week, but you recover." Aly said after Lenna, Rome, Raws, Georgie, Danila and Caleb rescued her to Lenna in the car on the way to Kansas.
“Come on guys, you can’t leave me alone with Barbie and Aly. I mean Barbie is a Barbie and there will be a point when I just shoot her and not regret it a second, and Aly I don’t know she is a newbie hunter. Yeah she might be a good fighter, but gosh we would be so in trouble when the team is just the three of us. Come on guys, call or text me. That was the moment you knew deep down that they were leaving me. Raws never wanted me around in the first place and Rome… you were a toy for him.”
“Okay since when I am such a baby? I was alone before I met the boys and now I get scared when they are out of my sight? Go get a grip Lenna that is ridiculous. They made you weak! They took your spark and left you with nothing.
His call to Elenna hadn't gone well, either. Though he grinned fondly at the memory, she'd flipped a pancake at him for not calling earlier. That kid....well, shouldn't be left alone for more than ten minutes at a time, for one.
"OW!" Rome cried, holding his offended cheek. Elenna's face was livid, and she was holding her hand from slapping him so hard.
"I can't believe you left me--again! With people who make me use guns! You are such a...a..." she swung back to hit him again but Rome grabbed her wrist and tried a tentative grin:
"A slob? A creep? A misogynistic bastard who cares only about himself?"
She stopped, at that, at least. And she blinked. So he kept going:
"I have bad breath? I drink nothing but Mountain Dew and complain to you when my piss turns green? I steal all the hot water in the motels? I'm out all night and sleep all day?"
Then she laughed. Rome let himself relax a bit: Dodged that one, he sighed, relieved.
"You're mean," she laughed, snatching her hand back and shoving him. She was doing the grinning-but-pretending-still-to-be-mad thing. Which was frankly adorable.

 •••— •• ••• •• ——— —• ••——••  "Vision?"

“Time for the last push.” Agent Holyfield grinned evil, he took the liberty and joy of doing the last step of turning Lenna into something else. He took his gun and aimed, first at the head, but he knew that would not give him the result he wanted. Her shoulder... no just not being able to carry a big book was not his result either. Not even shooting her into her leg was what he wanted. He wanted it all...

“Sir every test has shown the same result, the result we want.” A man in a lab-coat explained as he ticked a few boxes on a list. “She is ready.”

Agent Holyfield smirked, nodded and then he fired twice once into her abdomen knowing it would damage her spinal cord. Lenna started screaming in pain, her eyes wide in horror and her dark brown eyes turned bright blue. And a second time right into her heart. Lenna stopped screaming and slammed back onto the bars of her cage. Blood was dropping down into the floor.

“Sir? I thought you just wanted to hurt her not kill her?” The man in the lab-coat locked shocked at Agent Holyfield.

“Since when do I have to explain to you why I do something?” Agent Holyfield walked away from the lifeless body of Elenna Abigail Fee. “I guess I squished the last hunting fairy.”

Without hesitation Holifield went to Rome. “I guess you didn’t see that one coming? Your little fairy... she is dead. I shot her myself ad what a pleasure it was. After she told me every little secret, she was quite a witch.”

He was--sitting. He couldn't stand, or even hold his--the top crown skull thing--head--up. He didn't remember his name or where he was. The room was dark. Two people stood in front of him, a man and a woman, and the man had just shot the girl.

"I don't know her," he rasped. "But--you can't just let her die!" That was wrong, wasn't it?

The man didn't say or do anything, while she just laid there, leaking--no, bleeding, that was the word. Bleeding. It touched his foot.

"Please, you can't--Lennie--"

Lennie? Lenna! Of course he knew her!

"No, wait!" He tried to lift his arms but he could barely--and they were bound to the--chair-with-wheels he was sitting on. "Lenna!" He knew her from somewhere. She was important, if only his head didn't hurt so much he would remember why. Had they slept together? Were they dating? He didn't think he had a sister...

He looked at the blonde man with the gun. He might have been crying, or he might have been bleeding, but something was running down his nose. "Please, you can't let her die! There must be something you can do! You have to!"

The man just smiled. "Why don't you?"

"Fuck you!" he cried. "HELP HER!" And then there was a rush of air. His ears popped, and a shock wave exploded around him. The man and the girl--the body--LENNA--slammed against the walls all around him. They couldn't do this to her! He wouldn't let them. He would kill them all!

"Shit! Sedate him!"

He heard metal rending, lightbulbs popping, things exploding. Rushes of sound--nothing--and then explosions. Bodies slamming into walls. Cement crumbling. It released the pressure on his head, and it felt good.

"NO!" he screamed, but he didn't know why anymore. The lights went out.

Alex was guarding an empty room again. He wasn't sure why they bothered leaving him to guard an empty room, but they always did, and since it was almost like getting a break from actual guard duty, he wasn't about to ask questions. After all, there was no one to yell at him for playing whistle.

He was playing an old sailing song when he nearly stabbed himself in the eye with the whistle jumping at a very loud, very obnoxious siren. He flailed to his feet from where he'd been sitting cross-legged against the wall and was saved from having to figure out where to go by the sound of explosions or something nearby, in the direction they'd taken the Remington kid. Last time there had been explosions around the Remington kid, he'd been trying to bring a warehouse down around everyone's ears, so Alex was hesitant to go running in guns blazing.

There were bits of ceiling falling, flimsy white cardboard-type tiles shedding bits and pieces that were jarred loose as another, smaller explosion shook the end of the hall.

Also, the door would not be a problem, nor, it appeared in the emergency lighting that had flicked on, would several sections of wall.

He stepped through the ex-door and around a body that might or might not have been dead and ducked a gun barrel to the face with an indignant squawk that he'd deny if anyone ever mentioned it. Before the other agent could take another swing, there was a gunshot, and he dropped.

"Shit!" he yelped, ducking for cover behind a collapsed section of wall as several other gunshots pinged around the room around him. "STOP SHOOTING!" he yelled, to absolutely no effect. He glanced out from behind the cover for a split second and realized that the agents weren't turning Remington into swiss cheese-- they were shooting at each other, albeit like a bunch of damn storm troopers. Still, they were bound to hit everyone eventually, including people they weren't aiming for, and so someone should probably put a stop to them.

Any time now.

Aaaaaany time.

You're friggin' kidding me, Alex thought when Holyfield didn't eventually step in to stop the chaos. Jackass was probably hiding behind some piece of wall and avoiding the fight altogether, hoping someone else would step in. Of course, Natalie would be nowhere to be found, simply because of who she was as a person (or vampire), and no one else seemed inclined to do anything about the situation. More people were going to come tearing in here soon, and as much as Alex hated his job and most of his co-workers, he didn't actively want any of them shot to death by their own. Also, someone was eventually going to hit the Remington brat, and they still needed him, or something. Anyway, it'd be a shame to lose him to crossfire...

Alex sighed and said a brief prayer to whoever was (probably not) listening, eyes closed briefly. Another shot thwacked off the wall remains behind him. "Alright, alright, chill..." he growled, then shook his head ruefully and added, rather more quietly than he was accustomed, "Powder River, let 'er buck!" and dove out from behind the wall.

Powder River, let 'er buck.

He heard the voice in his head--what the fuck did that even mean?--and he couldn't put a name to the speaker--or the thinker?--but it sounded familiar, and that was really all he wanted right now. Familiarity. Anything else was too much to hope for.

Not since she--

Nothingness. He wanted--no. He couldn't think about that. He couldn't think about anything.

All around him, bodies dropped, dead or asleep, he didn't care--like puppets with their strings cut. He hadn't known he was controlling them. He wasn't anymore.

He wasn't doing anything anymore.

"Good," said a voice, and a tall blonde man in a suit put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You're doing very well." The man seemed familiar, but then, in a rush of warmth, he was out.

At least the darkness didn't hurt.

“First things first, we got to break her soul. Tie her up tightly and whatever you door rather feel do not stop!” Holyfield ordered a sinister looking man in a lab coat.


“Yes Sir.” The man nodded and let Holyfield step behind the protective shield while he made sure Georgie was tied tightly to the table. How to break a soul if the asset is not playing along at all? The man grinned wicked, took the razor and roughly chopped off Georgie’s hair. She was stoic all this time even when she felt all the pain of her friends and other inmates but the moment her beautiful golden locks got chopped off and left her with... the bit that was left looked like the dying tuft of grass.


“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE?” Georgie was screaming and several people around her dropped to the floor overwhelmed by the feelings projected into them. Georgie was not just able to feel other people’s feelings but she could also project them into people at least in great distress. That is when the beating started until she was so weak that her physical pain paralysed her powers.

But that was not all. They did blood tests and took gallons of her blood until she was nearly dead. All tests were promising, giving them the results they really wanted. She was the right subject, the right subject to combine her and the other subject... It was the perfect match!



And then one day...

“Sir every test has shown the same result, the result we want.” A man in a lab-coat explained as he ticked a few boxes on a list. “She is ready.”



Agent Holyfield smirked, nodded and then he fired twice once into her abdomen knowing it would damage her spinal cord. Lenna started screaming in pain, her eyes wide in horror and her dark brown eyes turned bright blue. And a second time right into her heart. Lenna stopped screaming and slammed back onto the bars of her cage. Blood was dropping down into the floor.

A flickering light, light a candle’s, gentle, helpless and small one moment it was burning and the next it was dying...

Do you remember? wrote:“Georgie? You do know that I’m not a Barbie, right?”
“Yes I know you aren’t. You are Skipper, my little brunette sister.”
Rome put his arm around both girls and squeezed them tight, feeling like the luckiest gigolo of all time. "All right, girls, whaddya say we go for a night on the town? Which," he admitted sheepishly, "in southern Kansas means going down the road for ice cream."
I guess that brunette didn't come to the library to look for a cheesy romance novel...
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed suddenly that Elenna had dropped some of her research on the floor without noticing, but before he could make a move to retrieve it, Georgie had returned to the bar and picked it up off the floor. She followed it to their table, to Elenna, and she and Rome caught each other's eyes briefly and looked away quickly. There was something about the way she scrutinized the article that had Rome wondering, and the way she didn't give him a second glance, unlike just a moment ago, was highly suspect. He'd have to keep an eye on how she kept an eye on the group. She could be another hunter, maybe, with how she reacted to the information, in which case the more the merrier…
Jeez, that girl should seriously get some antidepressant pills, she seems like a really angry kid...
“Is this a real question, Hermione? Of course, what do think? …”
"This whole situation is so twixed up." Both girl smiled.
Okay, something is definitely wrong here!
Just the thought of Elenna being a werewolf made Georgina sick to her stomach. Elenna's smiling face appeared in front of her. 
There is no way that girl is...
Georgina sighed and stared at the wall. Elenna's weird behavior, her outburst of temper, the coldness in her eyes...it all made sense now. 
Hold on, Lenna! Please!

But this time there was nothing that could save her best friend, her sister by choice. She was gone and Georgie felt her dying until the light of Elenna Fee’s soul was gone.