2013.08.02 - Nightmares

Night at the Xavier Institute. Rain falls quietly but relentlessly outside the window of the room that Rachel Summers shares with Kitty Pryde, but it's not the rain that's causing one of the room-mates a restless night's sleep. Rachel had returned late, looking exhausted, and barely took the time to change out of her training uniform before collapsing into bed and passing out. She'd monopolised the Danger Room for as long as possible, tearing through the holographic giant mecha supplied by Doug until her powers and her physical reserves were both all but spent. It had felt good at the time, almost therapeutic, but any hope she'd had that mere exhaustion would grant her a dreamless night's sleep soon prove to be forlorn.
For an hour or so, though, she does sleep, unmoving, dead to the world. It's only a little later that she starts to shift in her bed, the covers getting dislodged or wound about her as she does. Her breathing changes, becoming faster, while her head starts to shake back and forth. Just a little movement at first, but soon vehement motions of denial. "No." The first time the word's spoken it's quiet and barely intelligible, but that too becomes more distinct. "No. No, it's not real. No! Not again! NO!" She's not shouting, her voice sounding hoarse and desperate, but it's enough to disturb anyone else who might be trying to sleep.
 
Sleep doesn't come easy for Kitty either. Whether it's just a general feeling of uneasiness, doom, or just a bad night altogether. Thus, she's wide awake when Rachel first begins to call out in her sleep. A sound that is unfamiliar to Kitty - though not entirely. She did have a room-mate a long time ago, and nightmares for both girls did happen. Still it does cause a start to the skinny Jewish girl, as she bolts upright with a slight gasp of noise, her eyes darting about the room.
Lockheed is sound, sound asleep in his bed, there are few noises when he's in such a state that will get him out of it. (Food is one, but that's a different thing tonight.) So, the dragon is sleeping peacefully - with faint snoring noises echoing out of his snout. 
At Rachel's continued irritation, however, Kitty's sheets are flung back as she hops out of bed, drawing towards the red-head's side with soft, quiet sounds. "Rachel. Hey.. Red.. Ray.. It's just a nightmare. A bad dream." One hand reaches outwards, as Kitty's voice doesn't seem to have any affect at all on the red-head, thus, Kitty's fingers will reach forward, idly brushing against Rachel's arm with the barest of touches. 
And for the record - Kitty is dressed as she normally does at night, her clothing a well loved pair of Hello Kitty pajamas. 
 
Rachel doesn't react to Kitty's approach, still tossing and turning fretfully in her bed, and though she's still speaking in fits and starts, her words are a confused murmur once again. Even Kitty's voice doesn't seem to register with Rachel, she seems completely caught up in whatever's unfolding behind her eyelids.
But then Kitty touches her, and everything changes. Rachel's other hand snaps out instantly, her fingers closing on Kitty's wrist with a vice-like grip, and suddenly Rachel's eyes are open, wide open, the green orbs focused on Kitty - but so very clearly not seeing her at all. "No." She says in a whisper, the word hitching in her throat, but the nightmare takes her, dragging her down - and dragging Kitty right along with her.
Its raining in the city, for Rachel and the passenger behind her eyes, the downpour plastering her hair against her head and even managing trickle down her back, despite the skin-tight, spiked outfit of dark red that encloses Rachel's body. Between the rain and the darkness of the night, visibility is cut to only a few meters, but Rachel doesn't need her eyes to hunt with. She's crouching in the cover of a broken wall, absolutely still, while the compulsion to move, to carry out her orders, grows stronger and stronger in her mind. She's fighting it, but the sense in Rachel's mind is one of futility, that she'll lose, and when lightning spears across the sky, silhouetting the broken buildings of the ruined city around her, the battle's already over.
Up and running, the programming drives her on, overriding hunger, overriding the tiredness in her gaunt body, focusing her senses on the mutant. He's close. Very close. But he's trying to mask himself from her. Rachel catches a sound off to one side, the quiet noise of rubble shifting, and unwillingly her head swings in that direction. There. She's on him in a second, springing through the window of the burned-out house he's cowering in, bearing him to the floor, a broken table shattering even more under their combined impact. Her eyes find his, see the terror there, and she bares her teeth in a rictus of horrified triumph. A moment and it's done, and she's rising to her feet again. This one wasn't important, but her handlers had been right. He knew where her real target was. As Rachel disappears into the night, the implanted compulsion spurring her on, the man lies in a heap where he fell. Rachel's telepathic assault was swift and brutal. She ripped what she needed from his mind without regard to the consequences. But the time he's able to control his body - not to mention his bladder - again, he'll already be in custody.
 
Kitty nearly phases. She nearly gets the opportunity /to/ phase. Nearly being the word. She wasn't expecting Rachel to react in quite such a manner. A sharp intake of breath Kitty's first reaction herself, followed by ...confusion. It's a disorientating experience to actually be dragged into a nightmare. One moment Kitty's reaching her hand out to clasp onto the one that is holding her wrist tight, and the next - - it's.. insanity. 
The rain pours down over head, though it passes right through Kitty's ghostly form. Everything is so real, so insanely real, and so insanely /familiar/. It's a world she's saw so long ago, as a nervous gasp of breath is taken in, and out again, as Kitty's mind tries to adjust to what is going on. 
Kitty's gaze flickers to her hands, her body, the surrounding landscape. "RACHEL!" Her voice tries to yell outwards, but Kitty isn't actually /in/ the future, she's in /Rachel's/ mind. And without any form of telepathic abilities herself, Kitty's just a ghost, a person that can only watch with growing horror as the red-haired girl tracks the mutant down. Tracks him down, and then takes what she can from him, without regards to anything more than moving on to the next hunt, the next victim. This is what Rachel is hiding from, running from, so frightened from. It isn't the world itself, but what was /done/ to her, what happened. 
The mutant Rachel took down is considered a moment, but no these are but ghosts, ghosts like Kitty, memories of events that happened. 
With a clarity of thought, and the only worry is to Rachel's well being, Kitty charges on after the girl, her ghostly form moving through the memories, the mind as best she can. Kitty charges towards the girl, the one who his so haunted she takes these memories to her nightmares. 
The nightmare is all consuming for Rachel, a potent cocktail of memories that have become her reality. She has no awareness that Kitty's along for the ride, no sense that there's a passenger in her mind, until... Rachel freezes, as if she heard a sound, cocking her head almost like an animal. She didn't hear her name. Didn't hear anything. And yet, something's not right. Something's out of place. For a moment or two longer she remains crouched in position, but then she's gone, about her hunt once more. The odd feeling pushed to the back of her mind by the need to be in motion once more.
Rachel sets a punishing pace as she runs through the ruins. She's clearly accustomed to the terrain, there's no hesitation when she leaps across holes in the broken ground or vaults over obstructions. At one point she runs up a crazily sloping wall without slowing, hurling herself off the other side to land on her feet with a jarring thump, legs already pumping again. She's a telekinetic, she could make her progress far, far easier... but that's not what her handlers want. Her talents are all in place, but what's been done to her mind only allows her to use them for certain narrow purposes - and making her run more pleasant isn't one of them.
Her quarry is canny and experienced. He's survived being hunted by Hounds before, and knows there's one on his trail now. So as Rachel rounds the corner of a half-collapsed building, the night suddenly lights up. A powerful plasma blast smashes into the building's one remaining sturdy wall, and it collapses in a thunder of falling brick. The man steps forward cautiously, one hand still surrounded with plasma energy, ready to strike again, the light from it revealing him to be a tall man, his blond hair matted and dirty. It seems Rachel must be buried beneath the fallen building...
...but then there's a low snarl from /behind/ him, and Rachel launches herself out of the shadows onto his back. The plasma blast goes wide, and then the two figures are rolling on the ground, Rachel clawing at the man, while he tries to throw her aside. The struggle goes on in near silence - until a powerful searchlight beam illuminates the struggling figures. Rachel, dazzled, looks up into the light, black tattoos starkly visible against the pale skin of her near-emaciated face, and the man finally manages to heave her off him. A plasma blast takes out the searchlight, and he starts to run.
He doesn't get far. Soldiers step out of the surrounding darkness, and he's clubbed down before he can react. The soldiers don't stop there, laying into him with boots and nightsticks with savage glee.
For her part, Rachel's just rising to her feet when her collar is roughly seized and she's pushed back to her knees. "Down, Hound." The man says sternly. "You've done well with this one. Don't spoil it now and you'll eat tonight." Rachel's body trembles beneath the hand, but the conditioning is strong. She can't act. A shameful whimper comes from deep inside her when the man clips a leash to her collar, but that's the extend of her resistance.
At least, until another searchlight is switched on, and she sees that the mutant she hunted has been bound spread-eagled on an 'X' shape made from scrap metal. The mutant's head lifts, eyes nearly swollen shut from the beating but still looking at her. And Rachel? She knows him. "NO!" She yells, trying to surge forward - but her handler jerks back savagely on her leash. Choking, unable to breathe, Rachel turns - and a rifle butt to the face knocks her into the dirt. "Looks like the Hound's not hungry!" The handler calls to his compatriots, then gives Rachel a contemptuous kick.
Beaten, defeated, hating herself for her weakness and inability to resist, Rachel curls into a tight ball on the ground, trying to shrink away from the world.
Where Rachel is forced to crawl and climb, run and claw her way towards her destination, Kitty's but a ghost - able to keep up through her abilities, more than anything else. She moves as swiftly as Rachel does, perhaps even more so, given the ground is passed over without pause (even if she's in pajamas and no shoes), walls are run /through/. It's Rachel's pause after Kitty's yelled out that causes Kitty's mind to whirl with possibilities. Obviously Rachel in some manner 'heard' her, and that's good, for what Kitty witnesses next - is so horrific, she's not sure her own brain can function afterwards. 
Kitty's left to just watch, transfixed to her spot, as the memory plays out. "Oh.. Oh Rachel." Kitty is pretty sure that Rachel's the daughter of Scott and Jean in this future, just from hints and drops that Rachel's given, and Kitty -knows- that blonde man. Even if he's older, in Rachel's mindscape - it's so very obvious. And Kitty's as much trapped as Rachel is, to just -watch- what transpires next, her heart screaming for though this is a dream, somehow, Kitty's really certain, it's also a very bad memory. Re-lived in this format, for Rachel's shattered memories and mind wont allow her to remember it while awake. 
Tears streak down Kitty's own cheeks, fear..? No. Kitty isn't afraid. A determination spurs her on, as she scampers across the landscape, her hazel eyes burning with indignation. "RACHEL! Rachel Summers! If you can hear me, wake up! This is a nightmare. A /DREAM/." And you've brought me along with you, my friend.
Kitty's steps halt before the horrific looking man with an ugly as hell beard, and her hands dart out with careful ease, fingers alighting upon the chain that holds Rachel like a -hound- before him, fingers trying to phase it loose. "Rachel.. Rachel listen to me, wake up. Roomie. C'mon my friend... This is the future, this doesn't have to happen... and this wont happen as long as you and I are around to stop it. C'mon Red, wake up.." 
Someone's calling to her. And because someone calling to her is never good news, Rachel hunches in even tighter on herself, around the core of pain from the clubbing blow and the kick that followed it, and pretends she hasn't heard, pretends there's nothing else in the universe but her and the pain.
Beyond the huddled ball of Rachel, the soldiers go on about their business, one group dragging in the mutant Rachel subdued before, while most of them pay more interest to the blonde man, talking about how they'll finish him, or betting on how long he'll last, or how long it'll take him to scream... the soldier holding Rachel's leash stares right through Kitty, she's not part of this memory so he can't register her presence, and so he makes no move to interfere when Kitty reaches for Rachel's chain. Under her fingers it'll feel insubstantial, as if the memory is resisting Kitty's attempts to change it.
The effect on Rachel, though, is profound. As soon as Kitty touches the leash, her voice comes through clear and distinctly, no longer something half-heard, half imagined. Impossible as it seems, Rachel scrunches herself even tighter in response, but then her body goes tense and still as she registers not only Kitty's words, but Kitty's voice as well. Hesitantly, unwillingly, Rachel looks up, tear-filled eyes meeting Kitty's.
Suddenly, the rainy night is gone. The soldiers, gone. And Rachel's back in the room she shares with Kitty, one hand clamped around the brunette's wrist, staring wide-eyed at her. Rachel's hand springs open as if Kitty was scalding hot, and she scrambles backwards on the bed until she hits the headboard, where she goes still, looking around herself wild-eyed and panting. Finally, though, she blinks and some sort of awareness returns to her eyes. She crumples back into the corner between wall and headboard. "Oh hell." She gets out between fast breaths, eyes closing tight again. "Oh no. Oh hell. Just a nightmare. Just a ..." Her eyes snap open again. "You were there." She says, incredulously. "You were there and ... " She buries her face in her hands, drawing up her knees almost defensively. "What did I do?" The words are muffled, but Rachel knows /exactly/ what she did.
 
As soon as Rachel lets go of Kitty's arm, the mutant phaser lets out a soft sounding 'phew'. The memory fades. The nightmare fades. And Kitty's no longer in Rachel's mind, but back in the world that she knows. Her gaze flickers momentarily down to her wrist, where Rachel's death grip happened, the red welt around her skin already starting to show up. Though that's all forgotten as Rachel reacts to Kitty seeing what she saw. Now. Kitty could do a couple of things here. She could say it was nothing but a nightmare, a terrible dream, it wasn't real, and it didn't happen. Yet; Kitty has a fairly good idea it -did-. To Rachel. At some point. And this gives an entire new enlightening to understanding, well, Rachel. 
As Rachel retreats further against the bed, Kitty lets her, though Kitty doesn't go -too- far, instead she sits on the edge of the bed, and quietly offers a soft, sincere expression of pain and sorrow. Pity...? Well, if it means Kitty is trying to show mercy then yes, pity too. Though not in a derogatory manner, more compassionate, and trying to be understanding.
Kitty lets Rachel adjust a moment, before she offers a soft. "I was there, yes. And what you did was forced upon you, Rachel." Kitty offers with a soft voice, "You were made to do terrible things. Things that no one should ever have to go through, but you were not yourself, what you did, was not your fault. It was not. Your. Fault." How could Kitty know this? Well, she just does - from the images she saw, the way the soldiers tormented Rachel as well as the mutants. "You survived. And you're here now, and if you don't want to talk about it, I understand. But you should talk to someone. Jean, or me or... someone. I'm always here to listen, and to help, if you need me."
 
Shock, anger, accusation, all these things Rachel could imagine Kitty throwing at her, with plenty of justification. She's waiting for it. Compassion and understanding? These are not things that Rachel was expecting, and it's surprise as much as anything else that makes Rachel look up and push her hopelessly mussed hair back, and actually listen to what Kitty's saying.
Pretty soon, though, she's shaking her head firmly. "No. No. It's not like that. I shouldn't have... I wasn't strong enough, I should have found a way to fight them, or at least... make them kill me. Then I couldn't have done..." Rachel's eyes slide away from Kitty, shame and dejection in every line of her slumped posture. "...what you saw me do." Rachel really is heading for the depths of self-loathing, and the only thing that drags her back is a spike of fear from what Kitty says next. "You can't tell Jean." Rachel's looking straight at Kitty again, eyes wide and a bit frantic. "You... she can't know what a mess I am. If she doesn't already." After all, they /were/ merged for a while just recently...
Rachel remains staring at Kitty for a long moment, before she gets her breathing under control once more, and her head thuds down onto her drawn-up knees. "Kitty? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I did that to you. I don't know why... I don't know /how/ you're not yelling at me, but this is not what I meant when I warned you about my nightmares." It's a very weak attempt at humour, but it's all Rachel's got right now. "And..." She hesitates, "...you might not /want/ to know any more. About... what you saw. But thanks." She drags her head back off her knees. "I mean it." She looks a wreck, but she's honest, at least.
 
Kitty's going to go into full argue mode - how if that had happened, Rachel wouldn't be here now, and then where would Kitty be! Or for that matter, if Rachel hadn't continued to survive, hadn't did what she had to, in order to live, then Kate would never have traded places with Rachel, and the Presidential hopefuls would be dead in /Kitty's/ world. There are so many things that Kitty could say to Rachel right now, in order to argue the point, in order to get Rachel to see things from Kitty's point of view. The non-judgmental, compassionate, optimistic world view that is so /Kitty/. Instead though, Kitty parts her mouth, closes it, and then softly rises upwards.
"I promise, I wont say anything to Jean. I wouldn't. But I also think I know Miss Grey well enough to know she wont judge you, either, Rachel." Kitty's voice isn't accusing, though there is the tone of 'I'm not a snitch' as well as 'you can trust me'. "And - hey, it's the terrors of being room-mates with a telepath, try being room-mates with a half-demon. Where nightmares can actually eat you." And Kitty's teasing, well, trying to in her own manner, as she gestures towards the hallway. "I don't think either one of us is going to sleep again, so lets go get breakfast, and do a good long run. Clear the head." As far as the last, as Kitty's heading towards her closet to pluck out a pair of jogging shorts and hoodie, she turns around offering a quiet, "I don't know what it must have been like for you, Rachel. I can't imagine. But I do know that hiding all that away, building it up inside of you for so long? That isn't good, and one day - if you don't face it, and come to terms with the past, it'll eat away at you forever." Kitty's words are softly spoken, before she tilts her head towards the bathroom. "I'm going to change then lets eat!" And with that, Kitty darts off.
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