→ betty peabody → (fullofarrows) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2011-10-04 19:33:00 |
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Entry tags: | riley o'connell |
Who. Riley O'Connell & NPC's (People are welcome to jump in as a group thread, otherwise it's a narrative!)
What. Unwanted memories from two other lives & being captured by the enemy
Where. Middle Earth, in between Camelot and Resistance territory
When. Late Tuesday afternoon, October 4th 2011 during this
Warnings. Violence, violence and more violence
They'd been at it all day and with no intent of stopping. Whatever sort of people they were fighting from the Resistance, they weren't... normal. Whenever one went down, they just disappeared, and it seemed like ten more were there to replace them all too quickly. There were others in the Resistance, more powerful and obviously real, but Riley and Robin were pretty sure the majority of the soldiers Camelot was fighting were nothing but decoys. Very dangerous decoys because they were all wasting most of their energy fighting them instead of the real Resistance fighters. The outlaw was getting fed up.
Equipped with her bow, arrow and a sword, Riley was still pushing through her adrenaline and mowing through the 'decoys' amidst the chaos surrounding her of other people fighting. Some were hers, some theirs. Various limbs flying and bodies falling to the ground, only some of them getting back up. Riley barely heard the noise, everything was a distant hum in her ears as she focused on the next person to come at her swinging. She'd only been in actual combat one other time but this was easy as something completely natural to her, every elbow raise of her bow was as effortless as breathing. Thanks to Robin, she had that in her.
'Yeah? Then why are people still dying around me, hmm? Don't have a good answer for that, do you, Hood. Well I've got one. Because we bring that on them.'
The unexpected image of a tall, thin red head, so alike to Riley that she almost believed it was herself, sitting alone by a tree talking to someone. The sudden disturbance in her conscience took her off guard and Riley immediately came to a full stop in her stride, shaking her head to get rid of it and nearly getting plowed over by a Resistance soldier. She wasted no time in quickly ducking to the left before turning around and running them through. He fell to the ground and promptly disappeared just like the rest of them. Were any of these fighters human? This wasn't the sort of fair fight that Robin was used to.
Riley spun around at the shout of one of her comrades, red hair flying in her face and obstructing her vision only for a moment before she shook it out of the way and raised her arm to take aim, letting another arrow whiz past a clump of fighters and strike one who was about to come down hard on one of her own. The red head gave a triumphant shout and grinned, though immediately lurching in place when another set of voices and images threw her off balance.
'You know my thoughts. They are for the poor, they are for you, and they are for Marian, the woman I love. The woman who makes me believe that by a twist of fate we might just be able to see this through.' - 'We were fighters, Robin.'
At least those were voices and faces she recognized. Robin's and Marian's. Robin's life was constantly flashing through Riley's eyes when she least expected it, especially during times like this though Riley had no idea why. Was this just all part of adjusting to the life of living someone else's? It did nothing to help her concentration now and she grit her teeth with a frustrated sound as she plunged forward into the thick of it again, determined not to help Camelot lose this fight because she couldn't control her own subconscious.
'I'm not a failure. As long as there are still people out there resisting your tyranny, I won't have failed, whether I live to see the rest of this or not. You can kill me, you can kill everyone who fights with me, but we'll never be gone completely.'
That voice, clear as day and ringing out in her ears and then the unpleasant image of that same, skinny red head getting run through with a blade in a field of grass. A field of grass not unlike this one that Riley was fighting on. The pain was so searing Riley could practically feel it herself, and she knew that it must be Betty Morland, the reincarnate of Robin Hood before her. Riley had only ever seen a flash of her in her own eyes one other time, in Sherwood Forest with Brady, but unlike before Riley tried to hold onto it now even when she let fly a dozen more arrows at approaching Resistance soldiers. She needed to hold onto her. Somehow, she felt that it would help her fight better, help her-
She didn't see it coming. She was too busy focusing on saving everyone else. Every arrow that left her bow was to take down another pawn trying to take one of her friends from her, she was never in this fight to kill. She would kill if she had to, but all her arrows, they were for those who tried to kill her friends and their leader who she was as loyal to as Robin was loyal to King Richard. She didn't know where Daniel was at the moment, she couldn't see him. She didn't even know where Cora had gotten to in all the chaos but she knew that girl could take care of herself, it was everyone else she was worried about. They were all starting to get tired, tired of fighting soldiers who never seemed to stop coming, but her surprise came when she made the mistake of turning her back to shoot down a decoy attempting to run Peter Flynn through from behind.
'I can't fight without you.'
It was only a few seconds. A few seconds where all she could feel was light headed, and all she could hear was Robin's voice in one of his own memories. She knew she'd been hit in the head but she couldn't tell how badly or with what or if she'd been hit anywhere else. Everyone was still fighting all around her and she wanted to shout out to them but she couldn't, everything was getting hazy. Some part of her was screaming at herself to stay awake, to keep fighting, and as she collapsed to her knees with a grunt she still struggled to get back up.
'I can't fight without you.' 'Hey. Stop stealing my lines.'
Unfamiliar voices that weren't Robin's crowded her thoughts, images of her former self dying bloody in her then Marian's arms that made Riley squirm as she felt something sharp pierce her side and she finally fell to the ground in what felt like slow motion. She fell on top of her bow as her world spun out from under her and winced at the new pain in her side, just struggling to breathe.
Where was Robin now? Where was he outside of these memories? She searched for his voice but she couldn't find him in the fog of her mind beginning to shut off. The man of war who cannot kill, a lord turned outlaw. He was the source of her inspiration, her new found desire to help the poor and fight evil men. They were supposed to take on the world together, her and Robin and their Marian.
It's good to dream, my friend.
"Robin?" Riley's voice was small and hopeful as she finally found him, thinking everything would be okay now and then her vision went black as she felt a set of hands grab her. Whatever happened after that, she didn't wake up for a long, long time.