Literally Pirateninja (shadowcat) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-06-25 11:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kitty pryde (shadowcat), rachel grey |
You're afraid. Of me, aren't you?
Who: Kitty and Rachel
What: Rachel wakes up, Kitty has some bad news
When: Today
Where: Jean Grey Outreach Center
Status: complete
Rating: PG:13
In the dream world, it was as if the scene had gone on, oblivious to the danger Rachel's body was in or the Phoenix's arrival. She'd survived, miraculously, and to both her and Logan's surprise. There were hazy images before her eyes as she slunk off to lick her wounds, and Logan went back to the X-men.
As she tried to formulate some kind of life-saving plan, she eventually came across two fresh victims, killed by Selene. Obviously, the energy vampire had needed to replenish reserves after their battle, and just like Rachel had warned, the mutant would continue to kill innocent people.
In the dream world, and in the real world, a telepathic voice screamed through the immediate vicinity. WOLVERINE, I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN!
Rachel's eyes popped open, glowing with orange light. Flame licked at the edges of them and the familiar phoenix emblem appeared over her left eye. Things around the room shook, took to the air, or sprang to life.
“Oh fuck,” Kitty said, startled. She hopped to her feet, holding a hand out to Rachel. “Rachel! Red, it’s okay! Breath. Calm down honey.” Hesitantly, she took Rachel’s hand. “Look at me. You’re awake. You’re not dreaming any more. Real world. It’s the real world, peek into my brain and see the truth.”
"Kate?" Rachel breathed. Her real voice was a breezy whisper, as if she couldn't summon up enough breath to fill it properly. The things around her that had been floating in the air dropped, completely unceremoniously and in some cases loudly. There was, in fact, a loud crash as if something glass had fallen to the floor nearby.
There was something that just wasn't right about everything. Or rather, she wasn't the same person she'd been when she'd gone to sleep before, and she was suddenly very aware of every mind around her. Not just Kitty's. The annoyance of Moira nearby, the sleeping mind of Booker, Neena - still in a coma, dreaming about Nate, and a million other minds that she didn't even know.
She tried to lift her hand to her temple. The other hand clung to Kitty's, "What... Am I in the... Why do I feel like I got run over?"
That could have gone worse. Kitty didn’t pull her eyes away from Rachel, though, to check and see what damage there had been. Instead, she squeezed Rachel’s hand. “She came. She saved your life after…” Kitty gestured at Rachel’s chest. “Uhm. You’re hurt pretty bad. Scary bad.” Her voice was shaking, and the days of sleepless nights had worn on her. Her hair was a mess, her eyes hollow, but she wasn’t thinking about any of that. Just Rachel.
"SHE?" Rachel arched a brow at that, but it wasn't that hard to figure out. The boosted power levels, the worry, the fear... and if that wasn't enough, the events were at the forefront of Kitty's mind. Rachel blinked her eyes a bit, and found that there were tears in them, "The phoenix... she found me here. I never..."
It was when she fully took in Kitty's state that she realised how badly she was hurt. Like in the dream, that bad. She cringed a bit and looked down at her chest. Without the Phoenix, that would have killed her. Her own telekinesis wasn't strong enough, especially not yet. She squeezed Kitty's hand a bit more forcefully, "I'll be okay. Hey... no way I'd leave you, not here..."
"I don't think I could..." Take it again, she'd been about to say, but she bit her tongue and thought positive thoughts. "Hey, at least the kids responded well to the evacuation drills, right?"
It had been close, so close that Kitty still couldn't quite believe that Rachel was actually alive. Even though the Phoenix had come, they couldn't count on it working like it did in the dreams, they couldn't count about people coming back from the dead - no one had yet, that Kitty knew of.
"Don't do that," Rachel whispered. She tugged at Kitty, weakly, trying to pull the brunette into the bed with her. Both of them needed cuddles, Rachel figured. Kitty maybe needed them even more than she did, "Don't do that thing where you don't let yourself deal. I'm here, let's face this... together."
And she'd need to do that, too. The power inside of her felt like an inferno. The part of her where the Phoenix lived was filled with joy, but also angry. Unbelievably angry over the state Rachel had been in when she'd found her. Rachel knew she'd have to work harder to reign it all in.
Kitty let herself get pulled into the bed. She was careful of wires and tubes as she tucked her head in onto Rachel’s shoulders. Her eyes immediately watered over and she let out a choked sob. “Kind of think you’re the one that should be crying.” She wanted to wrap her arms around Rachel, but didn’t want to jostle her wounds. She settled on clinging to her right arm. “All that blood...god…I should’ve seen this coming, I should’ve known that something like that could happen, I mean it happened to me and it’s happened to others, and I just...”
What could they have done to stop it?
Maybe Rachel would cry about it later. At the moment, there were a million other concerns flying around in her head, and she felt, generally, like she was floating on a big fluffy cloud. That was probably the painkillers. It could have been. But Rachel also felt like everything was going to be okay, now.
The Phoenix hadn't eaten the planet and she wasn't dead. She already knew that with the cosmic entity on her side, she could accomplish more than she did without it. And she felt like that one little hole that had been remaining inside of her was finally filled.
She rubbed Kitty's back with her hand, "Even if you'd thought about it... even if you'd known, there wasn't anything we could do. Unless you hounded me all the time about what... what I was dreaming, and then we had Moira on call just in case. This wasn't in our hands."
Kitty threaded her fingers with Rachel’s, her lips leaving little kisses on her shoulder as she did so. Without the Phoenix there wouldn’t have been time for Moira. Faiza, maybe, but that was out of their hands. “I wish my powers could heal people.”
She closed her eyes, searching for that connection between them. It felt stronger somehow. Truer. More than anything else, that put her at ease.
I wish they could, too, Rachel was extremely tired, and she decided to switch their conversation to telepathy. Unlike her physical voice, her mental voice was strong. She nuzzled in against Kitty, and closed her eyes, I have a feeling Moira's not letting me out of here for a few days.
Belatedly, she realised that there were faces missing - especially her father's, and she asked, Where's Dad?
Uhm… Kitty darted her eyes. There was an altercation. Between him and Logan. He’s in the next room.
Altercation. Right.
That made Rachel's eyes pop open again. She wanted to get out of the bed, and started fumbling at whatever tubes and cables might be connected to her.
"WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO-- ow ow ow," Rachel groaned. Getting all excitable was obviously a bad idea but her dad was in the next room and no one had told her, and it was LOGAN.
Who had only just recently in her dreams tried to kill her. That primal entity inside her roared in the back of her mind. Rachel almost let it take over.
“Rach!” Kitty dug her fingers into Rachel’s arm. “He’s okay! He’s okay. I just didn’t want to freak you out right away!” There was a needle nearby, but Kitty didn’t want to knock her girlfriend out if she could help it. “Only thing I know for sure is they had an argument and tried to kill each other.”
HE'D BETTER BE REGROWING BACK FROM A FEW TINY BRAIN CELLS RIGHT NOW, Rachel shouted, mentally. Nothing about this was okay and if she didn't get a handle on the Phoenix now it was all going to go downhill. She knew that. Rachel wasn't about to break her track record now.
She focused on the proximity of Kitty, the feeling of the other woman's fingers digging into her arm, and reeled herself in, Logan has a lot to answer for when we're both done recovering. If he's lucky I'll let him walk away from it without thinking he's a three year old for a week.
He took your dad’s powers point blank to the face, I’m not even sure he’s still thinking straight. If he even was to begin with. Kitty wasn’t defending, just stating a fact. Her own dreams were making her question who her loyalty should be to as it were, and the past week hadn’t helped in any of that. “Breath. Calm. Calm down. We don’t even know where Logan is right now.”
"You're afraid. Of me, aren't you?" Rachel whispered. She tried to look Kitty in the eye, though that involved a little bit of moving around.
“What…? No…” Kitty brought her hand to Rachel’s cheek. “I’m afraid for you. You’re hurt. You could have died and you’re still really weak. I don’t want to lose you to the Phoenix either. You’ve never fallen before but things are different here… None of us were ready for this, and worse, you’re powers are still in flux.”
"'kay. Good. Because I can't do this if you're afraid of me." Rachel switched back to telepathy then, and tried to do her best to calm down, She's angry. She's been waiting here so long for a voice she recognized, and now she finds me like this. She wants to go after him and burn him to a crisp, but it doesn't solve anything. He'll heal back and just be more pissed off, and I can't promise I'd have a hold of her afterwards.
It was hard to admit that, but Kitty was right. These were different circumstances and Rachel didn't want to take any chances either, not until she was confident, But I'M the one in control of this power. I wield it, it doesn't wield me. I take its strength and I temper its passion, I just have to remember.
She should know we aren’t always the same as we are there. Sometimes we like to pretend we’re the same but we’re not. Kitty stroked at Rachel’s hair. She felt tired. She’d worked through her anger at Scott over Xavier and had come a lot farther with that than she had in the dreams, and she was afraid that Logan and Scott and everyone were going to take sides again.
She didn’t think they’d survive that intact.
“You beat Galactus? You’re in control.”
"I'm in control," Rachel repeated, with a nod. Right now, she was. And she had to reel everything in. She had to lock things down until she could deal with them in a more healthy manner. She could do that. The dreams had taught her everything about how to do that, at least.
Kitty rested her head on Rachel’s shoulder. “I’ll call up Candy and see if she can help your dad like she helped you. It’ll be okay, Red. Promise.”
“You say it, and I believe you,” Rachel whispered.