Isaac
Isaac pulled up at Mouse's house. He paused a moment before getting out of the car and walking up the path to the door. He rang the bell and waited.
He knew things had been hard for her lately, and he wanted to make sure that she was all right.
Clarissa
Clarissa got up out of her chair, keeping a wary empathic link with Mouse, barely able to take the strain as it was.
She opened the door and looked at Ike, tilting her head to the side slightly.
"What do you want?"
She was too tired to be diplomatic. The babies had been screaming all night, you could still hear Jason wailing in the background and Keltie trying to soothe him, and the other two as well. Bets had laid herself down in front of Mouse's door and seemed to have settled in to die. Mouse? She couldn't get in there, and she could smell death in there because of Fafnir's body. It wasn't strong yet, but...give it a few more days and it would be.
Isaac
Isaac was a little taken aback.
"I, uhh, I came to see how Mouse was doing. I know things have been rough on her lately..." he trailed off uncertainly.
Clarissa
"Maybe you can get her out of the room," Clarissa said tiredly, stepping back to let him in.
"I can't."
Isaac
Isaac stepped inside.
"I'll sure give it a try," he said. "Uhh, what's happened to make her stay in there?"
He had a hunch that this was not Zac or Taylor related.
Clarissa
"Well, there was the Taylor went crazy thing, hurt her, slapped her and then ran off," Clarissa said.
"And that was bad enough. But this..."
She shook her head slightly as she headed down to Mouse's room. Bets growled weakly at them, ears laid flat back agains her skull.
"Someone shot the wolf. Right through her bedroom window when she was in the room."
Isaac
Isaac's eyes widened.
"Fafnir? He's... he's dead?"
No wonder Mouse had closed herself off in her room! And Bets... Bets looked so unhappy.
Mouse
"He's dead, and she won't let go. Won't let us in, won't let us take him," Clarissa said wearily.
Bets growled again, showing her teeth.
"We're not going to hurt her, ok, dog? Just talking, that's all."
She opened the door slowly over Bets's soft vocal objections. The room stank of blood and despair, like death. A loud snarl came from the bed and Mouse raised her head, baring her teeth in a wolf like grin. Fafnir's huddled body was next to her as she ran her hands through his soft fur ceaselessly.
"Mouse, sweetie?"
Just a snarl answered her, before Mouse dropped her head again, curling around Fafnir and whining softly. Her face was still flecked with blood and the bedsheets had turned a red brown with the blood Fafnir had shed. The cardboard against the window had blocked out most of the light.
Isaac
"Hey, Mouse," Isaac called through the door. "It's me, Ike. I'm sorry about Fafnir, I really am. I know he was your best friend."
Mouse
Mouse snarled at Ike, resting her head against Fafnir's back, waiting for him to wake up. It was like a part of her had been ripped away. Stupid two leggers and their WORDS. Her best friend? HER BEST FRIEND?!
He was her Pack, her family, her protector, her everything and he wanted to shift all of that down to BEST FRIEND?! He couldn't know what this felt like. Her and Fafnir...they were one. She could feel Bets lurking on the outside of her consciousness, and her babies further out then that. Nothing mattered now.
"Mouse, please..." Clarissa said.
A glint of teeth and a knife bared protectively.
"Mouse, he's dead. Please. Your babies need you."
A roughened snarl followed by a shifting on the bed then Mouse settled down again, wary animal eyes on the door and the people there. She kept close to her Pack. She'd protect till he woke up. Because he had to wake up.
Isaac
Great. He had come over to help and he had said the wrong thing.
Which meant what he said next had better be something good otherwise he may as well just leave for all the help he was giving.
"I... I know how you feel, Mouse. And don't let just anyone say that kind of thing to you, because unless they've been there, they don't know. But I have. My Myra was shot in front of me too. Point blank. I... I remember all too well that day. It's engraved in my mind. And I was a mess, a complete mess afterwards. Not just because she had been murdered in front of me, or because of me, but because the love of my life, my soulmate, was gone."
Mouse
Clarissa nodded slightly at Ike, feeling the barriers in Mouse's mind relax faintly.
Mouse whined again, then howled. Her voice carried all the sorrow she couldn't put in words. A wailing cry of pain and grief, animal and mindless. Bets joined her, stangely beautiful yet eerie uluating voices chasing each other higher and higher until Mouse just screamed.
Isaac
Isaac felt tears prick at his eyes. Not just because he understood Mouse's pain, but because he just got teary-eyed when he thought about Myra's death.
He didn't say anything, just listened to the cry of anguish. He knew Mouse - and Bets - both needed to let it out.
Mouse and Keltie
Mouse laid back down on the bed, hugging Fafnir's body to her and crooning softly as she closed her eyes. Bets put her head back down on her paws and sighed.
"I don't know who did it, I didn't even feel them coming," Clarissa said quietly to Ike.
"And if I didn't...either they've been talking to Magneto, or they've found their own ways of blocking a telepath and an empath out. Or they were so cold, they didn't care."
"Keltie! UP! Now!" Jason demanded.
"Shh nae," Keltie said.
Jason wailed.
"UP! MUM! NOW!"
"Keltie, maybe he'll be quiet if you just bring him in," Clarissa said.
"Alrigh', but I dinna think it's that a guid idea," Keltie said, picking the baby up and walking through to Mouse's room.
"Mu-um!"
Jason reached out for Mouse on the bed, small hands grasping and brown eyes tearing. His small horn stubs poked out through the rapidly growing fluffy curls on his head. Mouse raised her head and whuffed quietly to herself, before she got up off the bed and took Jason off Keltie, whining and purring to him like a mother wolf. He cooed back.
Isaac
Isaac smiled a little, then shook his head.
"She doesn't need this. Especially not now, what with what's going on with Tay."
"And Zac," he added to himself.
"Who would want to kill him anyway?"
Mouse and Keltie
Mouse growled, licking along Jason's head to tame the wild curls. She ignored the three in the doorway now, concentrating on her baby.
"Someone who wanted to hurt her, damn near break her," Clarissa said.
"I have a few guesses, myself."
"The Fury," Keltie murmured, and made a sign against evil, fingers flicking quickly.
"Hawk of the Shining Merciless Dawn."
"And one scientist..."
Clarissa shook her head.
"Who I think is working for Ash-"
"Don't say the name! To say Her name is to call Her. Her attention must not be drawn here!" Keltie hissed, clapping a hand to Clarissa's mouth.
The nygel took her hand away after a moment and paced uneasily, ears flicking nervously.
"Why would someone want to break Mouse?"
Clarissa looked at Jason and Mouse.
"So she can't protect her children. And with the wolf gone...Not that I'll be dead before something hurts her, but he was her...last line of defence, if you get what I mean."
Isaac
Isaac glanced at Mouse.
"Then I guess we need to go on the offensive while we wait for her defence to regroup," he said. "If you know what I mean."
Keltie
"Rang Steel," Clarissa said.
"But Blakesley's dropped off the face of the earth. Again."
"The creatures of gramarye are hiding," Keltie said softly.
"Even in places where we have ruled for seasons on end. The calm before the storm is upon us."
"Who is the Hawk?" Clarissa asked, having recieved a disturbing flash from the nygel's mind.
"A woman on black nightshaded wings, with eyes red as embers and hair like a raven's feathers. Sword and bow, Runes and spells, born of earth and heaven," KEltie said.
She looked at Isaac.
"Ye have met her, the ensnared Valkyrie."
Isaac
Isaac nodded.
"I remember her. At the New Years party at P3. She was after Faith's friend, Brand," he said.
Keltie
"It is not her ye should blame," Keltie said.
"Her soul screams...indeed, the air shudders with it. Her pain...a Warrior of Light, bound to Darkness. Such torment you could not consider..."
She flicked a lock of hair behind her equine ear.
"And her lover searches for a way to bring her back. Kriger Llys. Mmph. Asgard is not my affair and I wished the Norse would stay out of mine! The Firefly Key...of course. What power, to hold the Key to the Gates of all Heaven?"
"Wait, what?" Clarissa asked.
Keltie whickered a low snickering laugh.
"He was the possession of the Merciless Dawn. Now, he is not. She is not happy with this arrangement."
Isaac
"I have to admit, when it comes to magic, I don't even pretend to know what's going on," Isaac said.
He looked at Mouse again.
"I hope she'll be all right."
Keltie and Mouse
"It's hard to tell," Clarissa said.
"I've never heard of an empath bonding to an animal before. People, yes, animals...not so much. And they were together for so long...just building on and expanding the link...and it broke so violently."
"Two leggers and their guns," Keltie spat.
Mouse continued to ignore them, attention focused on the child in her arms. The wary stillness in her pose showed she was ready to fight to keep her Pack together, however.
Isaac
Isaac nodded thoughtfully.
"If it hadn't been a gun, the assassin would have used something else," he commented.
Keltie
"Aye, then, two leggers in general," Keltie said.
"Killing for sport...to hurt another...ye're all insane in a verra basic way."
Her ears pricked and she moved off to take care of Melusine who she could hear crying.
"She may have a point," Clarissa said dryly.
"Which brings me back to another thing...the body needs to be taken out of there. He was shot yesterday so...another day, maybe two, before it really begins to stink. If you grab it...no, she'd kill both of us."
Isaac
"Wait until she's asleep?" Isaac suggested.
Even though he knew it was better if they got Fafnir's body away, Isaac couldn't help but feel guilty conspiring like this.
Mouse & Clarissa
"That could work," Clarissa said.
"Damn, this is just too tragic, the whole damn thing."
She scratched her head, looking at Mouse. The teen sensed eyes on her and lifted her head to bare her teeth at them.
Get out.
A low warning growl.
"Your mom's an empath, isn't she?" Clarissa asked.
"See, I know mutie empathy but not so much alien. Would she maybe know something to snap her out of this?"
Isaac
"It sure as heck won't hurt to ask," Isaac replied.
He tentatively stepped away from Mouse.
"I can give her a call now, if you'd like?"
Clarissa
"Call her," Clarissa said after a moment's thought.
"I now when I need to ask for someone else's help. Phone's through here."
She started to lead Ike out to where the phone was.
Isaac and Diana
Isaac followed Clarissa, then picked up the phone and dialed home.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Mom? It's Ike."
"Hi, Ike. Aren't you at Jane's at the moment?"
"Yeah. Umm, she's having some problems at the moment - someone killed Fafnir."
"Fafnir... the wolf?"
"Yes. Mouse is... taking it pretty hard. Umm, we may have need of am empth to snap her out of it. She won't move away from the body and he's been dead for at least a day."
"Ahh, I see. Well, I'll be around in a minute."
"Thanks."
They hung up.
"She'll be here in a minute," Isaac told Clarissa.
Clarissa
"Good," Clarissa said.
"So, how's things at the Hanson household?"
Isaac
Isaac shrugged.
"Avie's still not over having killed the Eye. Taylor's becoming some sort of recluse. Zac... well... in between avoiding Tay and looking aftre his kids I haven't seen him much lately," Isaac shrugged. "Well, I hope they can pull it together soon, seeing as it won't be long before we go back on the road. new album and all that."
Clarissa
"So, it's all messed up, all the time," Clarissa said.
"Good luck on getting everything together."
She looked him over carefully, empathy just barely nudging his mind as she 'read' him.
Isaac and Diana
Isaac smiled.
"Thanks," he said.
Soon thereafter, Diana arrived and rang the bell.
Clarissa
Clarissa got the door and let Diana in.
"As long as we're all clear on everything...we try to bring her out of it, Ike, you make sure she doesn't get too knife or teeth happy on our perspns. Cos I don't know bout you, but I like my fingers where they are...on my hands."
Isaac and Diana
"Yeah," Isaac nodded. "So do I."
Diana's eyebrows went up.
"Just how bad is - no never mind... I can feel her pain form here," she shook her head.
Mouse & Clarissa
"Guess this is where the fun begins," Clarissa said dryly and led Diana and Ike back down to Mouse's room.
Mouse crooned softly to Fafnir, then her head swivelled as she heard the door open. An ugly snarl changed her face from the sweet slightly innocent girl she was normally into a raging beast.
Isaac and Diana
Diana frowned in concern at the sight of Mouse. Her connection with Fafnir must have been stronger than she anticipated. On the other hand, it had been a while since she and Mouse had been in the same room together, and in that time, she had been cured of her power-cripling disease.
Isaac noticed his mother's frown and gave her an encouraging smile, then looked back at Mouse, on the ready to use his telekinesis if neccesary.
Diana focused for a minute on breaking through to Mouse empathically. Then she stopped and shook her head.
"I, I can't."
Mouse & Clarissa
Mouse shook her head in irritation, and growled at them angrily. Bets snarled softly, picking up on Mouse's disquiet.
"You know how to combine with another empath?" Clarissa said.
"Maybe if we both try it..."
Mouse yipped, then howled a warning. Bets bared her teeth at the people in the door.
Diana and Isaac
Isaac tensed, and chewed his bottom lip slightly.
"Okay," Diana nodded agreeably.
She closed her eyes in concentration.
Mouse & Clarissa
Clarissa threaded her power through Diana's and tried to reach Mouse with it.
Mouse shook her head, the growling rising in tempo before she finally had enough and leapt for them both, teeth bared and wickedly sharp knife swinging upwards in a motion that would either gut or cripple the women. Bets flowed across the floor in a menacing shadow of grey, her intents also plain.
Isaac and Diana
Isaac grabbed hold of Mouse midleap. Diana's eyes opened and she gave a small gasp.
"I think it's the way she connects so well with animals," she said. "Makes it difficult for... ahh... people like us to connect."
Then she noticed what Mouse was (or had been) doing, and her eyes widened in fright.
Mouse & Clarissa
Mouse growled, then shook her head as she tried to move and failed. She howled in anger, teeth glinting in a feral snarl.
"Something like that," Clarissa agreed in fascination.
"Well, I'm glad for the TK's presence, I surely am. Or we'd possibly be dead about now."
Isaac and Diana
Diana managed a hollow smile.
"He has his uses."
"Yeah, well, I could hold Mouse like this all day," Isaac said wryly. "But trapping her like this is making me feel bad - even if I am stopping her from murdering us. She has had a horrible time lately, she doesn't need us adding to it."
Mouse & Clarissa
"Then we will leave, and you can put her down," Clarissa said.
Mouse shook her head and whined.
"It seems to be adding to her distress, to be unable to move."
Isaac and Diana
"Yes, yes it does," Diana agreed.
She went for the door, walked out and down the hallway. Isaac waited patiently for Clarissa to leave, before leaving himself.
Mouse & Clarissa
Mouse dropped to the ground in a crouch, and then moved back up onto the bed. She resettled down with Fafnir's body and settled into a light doze.
"Thanks for coming anyway," Clarissa said to Diana and Ike, looking at them both.
"It's been some a few whacked out days. And the kids aren't taking it well either."
Isaac and Diana
"Sorry we couldn't help more," Isaac said.
Diana nodded her agreement.
"If you need anything else, don't hesitate to ask," she said firmly.
"Good luck, Clarissa. I hope you can get through to Mouse somehow," Isaac went on.
Clarissa
"Even if I don't, we're moving in...two days," Clarissa said.
"It's too dangerous to stay here."
Isaac and Diana
Isaac and Diana looked at each other.
"Fair enough," Isaac said.
"The offer of help is still open," Diana nodded. "Well, until later then, Clarissa."
Clarissa
"See ya, Di, Ike," Clarissa said.
"Stay safe."
Diana and Isaac
"You too," Isaac said. "See ya."
And on that, Isaac and Diana left.