Gwen
Gwen tried to move, only to find she was once again strapped to the gurney, screaming for help. But no one was coming, no one was stopping this. And she had no powers. She was helpless, lying on the table, bleeding as they cut into her, over and over, experimenting, taking blood smaples, tissue samples, everything.
She couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't use her powers, nothing. No one was coming for her, no one cared.
He'd set her up.
Meanwhile, in the conscious world, Gwen was thrashing around violently in her comatose state.
Mordred
Mordred moaned in his sleep, somehow watching her and back in his own version of the dream as well. As always, his helplessness to help the ones he loved overwhelmed him.
"Gwen!" He cried out. He couldn't help her, he couldn't reach her and he'd promised that he always would be there for her.
He kicked out in his sleep, sending the covers to the floor and waking Faolan.
The lights of the labratory reflecting off the white surfaces and the metal blinded him. "GWEN!"
Gwen
"Why are you doing this to me?"
"Because you're a freak, Gwen." Mark's face above her now. A face she thought she could trust.
But she was wrong. As always.
"Screw you!" Gwen cried, struggling against her restraints.
"Nope, not likely." Mark's face, twisted into a cruel smirk.
Gwen whimpered in her sleep.
"Why me?"
"Do you think I enjoyed being second to you? Just because you're a freak?"
"That's not my fault," Gwen said tearfully.
"I liked you, Gwen. Well, I tried to, but do you know how frustrating it was for me? Wanting to be close to you for so long, then you saying you didn't want to be with me, and then you shacking up with that other guy?"
"He's... how is that..."
"Well... you have a choice... do you want to live?"
"Yes," she whispered.
"Then love me."
"No."
"What?" Mark asked, holding up a scapel.
"NO!"
Mordred
Mordred snarled in his sleep.
"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!" Mordred lunged for the man, and cried out as the scalpel sunk into his shoulder. "I already killed you once, I'll do it again! Hurt my Pack and pay!" A blooddhtirsty snarl ripped out of his throat as he took the scalpel out of his shoudler.
Gwen
Gwen whimpered again, twisting violently in her sheets.
"Don't..." Her tearful cry as they sliced through her stomach.
"Filthy mutant. Don't speak."
"Don't..."
"Don't." SLAP! "SPEAK!" SLAP!
Gwen closed her eyes and gave herself up to the pain. There was no hope for her. No one knew she was here, and even if they did, who would care?
Mordred
Mordred was bent over the bed backwards, growling ferally in the other man's face.
"She's a freak."
"She's not! She's beautiful, and I love her, and she's special! She IS NOT A FREAK!"
Mordred's body twitched violently.
Gwen
Little Gwen felt herself being pulled into the dream world, somewhat confused, but also knowing what was happening.
Little Gwen walked through the people, unseen to anyone but Mordred.
"Mordred," she sang. "There's only one way to make this better."
She held out her hands. "The answer lies within me." She lifted a hand and tapped her head.
Mordred and Faolan
"I would die to save her. Tell me what I need to do," Mordred cried out. "Anything! No price is too great. I love her."
Faolan whimpered and kicked out, his movements mimicking Mordred's.
"Whatever I need to do. Anything."
Gwen
"There cannot be two of us in the same time," Little Gwen sang.
She handed Mordred a knife.
"You must kill me. But not here."
Little Gwen slept peacefully.
Mordred and Faolan
Mordred stared at the knife in his hand in horror.
Faolan whined with distress as Mordred's anxiety and fear skyrocketed.
"I can't do that! I can't...it would be... I can't kill you to save you! That doesn't make sense!" He said fearfully, but somehow knowing he would end up killing a child if it meant that he could save his beloved Gwen.
Gwen
"You know you have to."
Little Gwen's face turned to a sad expression.
"But you might want to find the older me before you do it..."
Gwen sat up, then disappeared.
Mordred
"Find her? She's in the Medlabs. Or she should be," Mordred said in confusion.
Gwen
"Are you sure?"
Little Gwen tapped his hands.
"Wake up now."
Mordred
Mordred sat up with a gasp, covered in sweat. He glanced over at where little Gwen was sleeping, before porting to the labs. He thought she was there on the bed, and then he saw she wasn't. "GWEN!"
Gwen
Little Gwen sat up and rubbed her eyes absently, before looking around.
"Uh-oh, I've been bad and gone away," she whispered. "And I don't know where I am."
Mordred
Mordred saw a confused Hank come out of his room.
"What's going on?"
"Gwen's gone." The teleporter left the doctor to his confusion as he 'ported back to his room. "What happened? You were in the dream too!" He demanded of little Gwen, afraid for his Gwen.
Gwen
Little Gwen shrugged.
"I don't know... but I know she'll be scared, wherever she is."
Her bottom lip quivered.
"I know I would be."
Mordred
"You told me that to get her back, I'd havta kill you..." Mordred whispered. "Please prove it wrong. Can I...can I look inside your mind? Just in case I can find her through you?"
Gwen
"You won't like what you see," Little Gwen said, her voice cracking with emotion.
"But feel free."
Mordred
Mordred sighed, and walked across to her. He put his hands to the sides of her face and closed his eyes as he leant forward, their foreheads nearly touching. "Just...relax..."
Gwen
Little Gwen closed her eyes, feeling him in her mind searching through the visions of her being experimented on at the school, knives, needles, restraints, killing that boy, everything.
Mordred
Mordred sorted through them, feeling only an overwhelming sorrow that the woman he loved had been subjected to something like this. Ever. His anger was a bare step behind, and he took careful note of names and faces. He'd find them. And they'd pay. "Not your fault..." he murmured to her as he kept looking for something he wasn't sure what. A link of some description.
Gwen
Little Gwen pulled away suddenly, before he could see what she'd locked behind the last door.
"No! That's not... you can't see that!"
Mordred
"Nothing you could do, could make me love you more, and nothing that you've done, could make me stop loving you," Mordred told her quietly. "What if what we need is behind that door? Let me in, pet."
Gwen
"No, it's not."
Little Gwen backed away again.
"I don't want to... no, it's not behind there."
Mordred
"Gwen..." Mordred sighed, and then slid through the door, dissolving it. He was shocked by what he found.
Gwen
Little Gwen rolled herself into a ball.
"I told you no, no, no, no!" she cried.
Mordred
"Shhhhhhhh," Mordred soothed as he walked through her memories. "It doesn't change anything. You're loved now. I love you, like this and now." He found what he was looking for, a thread of pyshic link between this Gwen, and his Gwen.
Gwen
Little Gwen wiped her tears away.
"You'll find her but it'll be too late. She'll have seen it all."
Mordred
"Seen what?" Mordred asked. He carefully followed the shining thread. He just needed to narrow down where she was, and he could teleprt straight to her.
Gwen
"She'll see what she fears the most."
Little Gwen closed her eyes.
"And not even you can stop that."
Mordred
So close...he was so close...
"I can try. And I can pick her up when she falls. I promised I'd be there for her. As much as I can, I keep that promise." Mordred bit his lip. "Where is she?"
Gwen
"She's at the school," Little Gwen whispered.
She closed her eyes.
"And she can tell she's there, even asleep, she knows."
Mordred
Mordred nodded, tears slowly making their way down his cheeks. He knew what he had to do now he'd found Gwen. So she could wake up. "I'm so sorry..." he whispered to the little girl, before he took the knife he kept with him now, and slit her throat with it. He kept his eyes on hers as he did so. She deserved that at least.
Gwen
Little Gwen nodded as she felt the life pouring from her. And then she was gone.
Gwen sat up, shivering as she looked around. She got up from the floor and explored around the burned shell she was in. And then she realised where she was.
Mordred
Mordred shuddered as her body disappeared, and he stood. With a thought, he teleported to the school. "Gwen? Love?"
Gwen
Gwen wandered around, the memories flowing back to her, as the tears fell from her eyes. She wrapped her arms around her body as voices of her past came to haunt her.
"Gwen, no!"
Dead.
"Now, we need to see how this works."
Trapped.
"Be a good girl, for mommy and daddy, Gwen."
Hurting.
"FREAK!"
Pain.
She continued through the school, stopping at her parents grave. They'd been big supporters of this facility. No surprises there. As she reached to touch the cool stone of the grave, she remembered everything.
Mordred
"Gwen?" Mordred's voice echoed in the abadoned school as he looked for her. He finally found her standing next to a gravestone. "Gwen? Love? Are you alright?" He went to her slowly.
Gwen
Gwen turned her head, startled at the sound of a voice. She shivered, cold, withdrawn, feeling like she still didn't belong in her body.
"I'm fine," she said quietly.
Mordred
Mordred came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "Gwen...I...I saw what happened here. Oh god, angel..." He swallowed hard. He couldn't tell her about slicing that little girl's throat.
Gwen
"They never cared," Gwen said, indicating her parents. "They couldn't wait to sell me to the first facility that would take me."
She closed her eyes.
"I was just another mutant... not a daughter, just a way to make money."
Mordred
"I love you," Mordred offered, knowing it was nowhere near enough. "They...they were blind and stupid if they couldn't see what a wonderful person you are. Then and now. Gwen, I..." Words failed him again. He could still feel the blood flowing onto his hands...
Gwen
"Please take me away from here," Gwen said softly, wrapping her arms around her chest. Nothing could be said to change the way she felt about herself. Nothing coud change her past.
Nothing.
Mordred
"We're gone then." Mordred closed his eyes briefly and 'ported them back to his room. He then almost fell onto the bed, weak and shaking with the intense mental effort he'd gone through that night. He looked at the knife gleaming on the bed where little Gwen had been and winced. Even the blood had gone...
Gwen
Gwen looked at Mordred.
"I know."
She touched his face.
"I know everything."
Mordred
"Oh god..." Mordred said in a hoarse voice, then buried his head in his hands. "I'm so sorry! So sorry...she just disappeared...I couldn't live without you. I'm so sorry..."
Gwen
Gwen kissed Mordred's forehead.
"It doesn't matter. Thank you."
Mordred
"God, Gwen, what they did to you...your own *parents*..." Mordred shook his head. "I'm so sorry I can't....that there's nothing I can do. Nothing I can think of."
Gwen
"It doesn't matter," Gwen said, almost angrily.
She walked over to the window and peered out.
"They're dead now."
"And so am I, inside..."
Mordred
"I love you," Mordred said, catching her thought. "And you're not dead. You're very much alive."
Gwen
Gwen nodded, unable to smile.
"I love you too."
She rubbed her head.
"I still don't feel too good."
Mordred
"Do you want to go down and Dr McCoy?" Mordred asked hesitantly. "Or...go to the kitchens and find something to eat?"
Gwen
"It's probably lack of food."
Gwen nodded.
"Kitchens."
Mordred
"Ok." Mordred nodded, and they walked through the silent halls to the kitchens. "What do you feel like eating?"
Gwen
"Anything," Gwen replied absently.
They reached the kitchens and Gwen found a seat, and sat down before she passed out.
Mordred
Mordred nodded and got her a cup of coffee from the perculator that ran day and night. There were far too many coffee addicts among both students and staff. He prepared her a a cup the way she liked it, then went to find something for her to eat. The Yoders had baked recently, so he got some apple crumble and put it on a plate in front of her. He started to make himself and her some sandwiches.
Gwen
Gwen sipped her coffee and then started to pick at her apple pie. She accepted the sandwich once it was made and then ate it slowly. She stopped feeling light headed after a few mouthfuls of food.
"How long was I alseep?"
Mordred
"About five days," Mordred said quietly. "I was...terrified isn't a strong enough word." He sipped from his coffee, tension clearly evident in his body language.
Gwen
"I'm sorry that you worried."
Gwen finished her sandwich and swayed slightly.
Mordred
"Bed," Mordred said firmly. He took her hand and teleported her to his room. "You sleep, I'll just go clean up."
Faolan looked up from the end of the bed where he was curled up in cat form, and yawned before putting his head down again.
Mordred teleported back to the kitchen to clean up after him an dGwen.
Gwen
Gwen carefully slid into his bed, and lay down, and rested her head on the pillow. SHe closed her eyes and drifted off to a fitful sleep.
Mordred
Mordred cleaned up the kitchen and turned off the lights before walking slowly back to his room. He'd killed a little girl tonight. Ok, maybe that wasn't exactly what she was. But that's what she had looked like. And he had slit her throat. Mordred lay down on Faolan's bed, then turned his face into the pillow and wept silently. After a bit, he decescended into a guilt ridden sleep.
Faolan shuddered under the stress of the emotional pain in the room, before returning to his own dreams.