Participants:
Scene Title | Our Strength Is Each Other |
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Synopsis | Kaylee looks to Richard for advice about the thing in her head. |
Date | January 11, 2019 |
Somewhere in the skies
It’s been a whirlwind of activity in the days leading up to this final trip out to New Mexico; and, only a couple of days since she woke up from a horrific nightmare. Now Kaylee was watching the world slowly shrink as the tiny executive plane lifts into the air, though her thoughts are not on the mission ahead.
In the back of Kaylee’s mind something stirs, shifts, and slides; a darkness that glitters like black diamonds. There is also nestled deep a soft hiss of words, just low enough… that try as she might, she can’t understand them. A soft sigh escapes her as she gives up her latest effort. Even though she’s grown more aware of it, she still can’t stop it.
Kaylee needed help and she hadn’t been sure who to turn to.
Her first instinct had been Eve. The precog was already over her head into this business, Kaylee knew she was going to be playing catch up… but when she had gone to Cat’s Cradle, Eve was gone. After that, things had been too busy… and she didn’t feel comfortable telling her husband or Luther, yet.
Blue eyes shift from the window to further down the plane, where Richard’s back sits to her. Lips are pressed together for a long moment, hesitant to throw more at her already anxious brother’s feet. He doesn’t need more.. There is a slight shake of her head. No. He had wanted her to come to him more…
Ding
The seat belt light switches over, alerting them that they can move freely and that’s exactly what she does before it can convince her not too. “Richard,” Kaylee calls his attention to her softly, moving to sit across from him before he has a chance to say anything. He may or may not have seen the strain in her features and the dark circles from too little sleep. More noticeable is the lack of any smile, this was a tired and broken woman. It has been a slow downward spiral and… she looks like she’s about hit bottom. “Can, I bug you a moment? I…I need advice.” It was the best way she could think to put it.
There’s a lot of weight on Richard’s mind and heart these days, weight that has been dragged him down — and it shows. There are dark shadows beneath his eyes, subconjunctival hemorrhages from long nights staring at screens and paperwork leaving red spots in their whites.
He’s staring out the window, and doesn’t even seem to notice when she sits down until she speaks— jerking out of his thoughts sharply, unfocused for a moment before he reassociates himself. “Sure, uh— “ A hand comes up to rub over his face, “Of course. What’s going on, sis?”
There is a moment where a flicker of a smile softens her features. “You look like how I feel,” Kaylee offers quietly.
A glance to the others in the plane, Kaylee scoots forward on the chair. Folding her hands and leaning on the table, he can see a flicker of her anxiety. “I-I don’t know…” she starts truthfully, voice low to keep the conversation as private as possible… Head dipping down to look at her hands, the telepath is quiet for a moment as she tries to collect her thoughts.
“I used to think I was going crazy like Warren.” Kaylee looks up across the table at her adoptive brother, hands unfolding so that she can tap at the side of her head. “Years, I’ve been hearing this voice in my head. Tempting me… Far back as I can remember temptation has been a real struggle for me… the the nightmares started and there was this snake.” Eyes unfocus as Kaylee thinks back. “A black snake… it’s been there since whispering to me..”
Kaylee shakes her head, jaw clenching for a moment, eyes misting a little. His sister can’t even seem to really look at him, her focus going to a point on his nose as she fights her emotions. “I’m not sure it’s what I think it is.” She’s scared. Her voice thick with it. “If it’s what I think,” she whispers gruffly…” I’m scared, Richard.”
The first comment has Richard’s lips twitch almost in a smile.
It fades swiftly, however, his hands clasping between his knees as he leans forward, watching her face with worry stirring behind his own eyes. She takes a moment, and he gives it to her, waiting until she’s ready to talk.
“A black snake,” he murmurs, reaching out then to try and clasp her hand, “Hey. Hey, relax, whatever it is… we can deal with this. What is it that you think it is, sis?”
Expression concerned, his own worries pushed to the side as he focuses on her.
Fingers cling to his when he reaches, after furiously rubbing at the threatening tears, followed by her other hand. Both curl around his hand like it’s a lifeline, she clings to it like her sanity. “I had a nightmare,” the words blurt out as if it takes effort, maybe a touch louder then she intended. A nervous glances goes to the rest of the plane, before she continues, softer, “Not just any… This… this had meaning.” He knows the type.
“The snake in my head was in it and it had golden eyes. Just like in the vision Joseph gave me. It was wound around… ” Taking a deep and shaky breath and watches him carefully as she says, “Kam Nisatta. I don’t know what is in my head, big brother. But I think it’s connected to this Entity we’ve all been talking about. It told me things…. About myself.. Edward…” She trails off shaking her head. Letting go of his hand she sits back a trembling hand pressing to her forehead.
“God, I sound crazy even to me,” Kaylee murmurs, fingers of that same hand running through her hair, “You have to believe me.”
It’s when she mentions Kam Nisatta that she feels Richard’s fingers tightening fiercely around hers, his eyes widening ever so slightly. “Nisatta…” The apple of his throat rises and falls in a hard swallow. “She was the host to the Entity, the last time around. We’re working with Yamagato to apprehend her…”
He leans back as well, shaking his head, “No, I— no, I believe you. What did she tell you? What did she say that scared you so much, Kaylee?”
For a moment, Kaylee isn’t sure she knows how to answer that, but there is a small nod of her head.“ She said… ‘Welcome home, child.’” There is a small shudder that runs through Kaylee as the words invoke the memory. “I don’t know why, but… that’s when I realized something was wrong.”
Swallowing hard, Kaylee curls arms around herself suddenly cold. “I’m only telling you this, because you already know about it… I… haven’t told Joseph cause I don’t want him… exposed to all this.” There is a reason she is saying that and it becomes clearer as his sister continues. “She told me there is no fate, only manipulation. That… she gave our father his ability,” her chin trembles a bit, her voice quavering, “and that she’s always been the one in the back of my mind, whispering and pushing me. Guiding me.”
Tears start to fall now, she gives him a nervous look, “That she is the snake in the garden…” Kaylee stumbles here, the rest coming out between gritted teeth, “That she will see the face of God again.”
“Fuck.” Richard’s hand pushes to the arm of his seat as he rises, moving around to drop in and sit beside her - reaching an arm to wrap around her shoulders and pull her in against his side.
“Sh, sh, it’s alright,” he breathes out, “It’ll be alright. That— okay. She could’ve given Edward his ability, that— that tracks, actually. Possible. And if she’s in your head…” His jaw tenses, “Then we just need to get her out.”
Kaylee can’t even look at him as he moves to sit beside her, but she does allow him to pull her against his side. It’s a movement that does bring a measure of comfort even though her shoulders are tense… all of her is really. Shoulders shaking and breath catching and shakily exhaled again. “I’m sorry… I am just throwing yet another problem at you, in the middle of all of this,” she waves at the plane, “but, I feel lost, Richard,” her voice is thick with her emotions. “Between this… and everything going on. Joseph… I can’t tell him.”
Fingers clutch at the side of her head, as her tone takes on an edge of panic, “What if I’m a danger to him? To my kids? How much is this thing manipulating me?” Hands drop so that she can turn a tear stained face his way.
“When I woke up,” Kaylee’s eyes search his, her shaky voices whispers, “Richard, for a moment my eyes were gold.”
“Kaylee.” Richard’s fingers squeeze her shoulder, his gaze holding hers worriedly as he says softly, “If they told you this, this is what they wanted to do— they wanted you to panic, to be afraid, to pull away from people. To make you desperate. Don’t buy into it.”
He grimaces briefly, “Can you show me what they said to you, exactly?”
Without any hesitation, Kaylee almost says yes to his request, but she stops herself. “No…” she says, but only half to him. Eyes are unfocus a little and head tilted as if listening. Then slowly she shakes her head. “That’s what it would want.”
Taking a slow, if shaky, breath and letting it out into a sigh; Kaylee looks like she needed that moment of vulnerability. It’s a long time to keep something like that to herself. A hand moves to cover his on her shoulder and gives it a grateful squeeze. “Like the nightmares that Hokuto inflicted on people, it’s still clear. I-I did write it down in a journal. It’s not the only nightmare I’ve started having, but it is the clearest,” and scariest goes unsaid. Fingers of her freehand brush at her cheeks, in a weak attempt to rid herself of the dampness.
“I’m tired of being manipulated by someone else. All I’ve done since the visions began is question every choice I’ve ever made.” Kaylee’s head leans to rest against her brother’s shoulder. “Now, I wonder if any of it was really my choice. She talked about webs and mazes. That this thing between worlds can see the whole board from above, while we only glimpse pieces.”
A kiss is brushed softly to her hair, and Richard breathes out a sigh that stirs its strands. “You can show me later, then,” he says softly, “And if you know you’re being manipulated… that’s the first step. Think of what you’d normally do when pushed like this… and know that’s what it wants you to do. If you’re afraid that you’re a danger to your loved ones— then you’ll pull away from them. And we’re always more vulnerable isolated from each other.”
He shakes his head a little, “Our strength is each other.”
“Stronger together…” Something in that phrase threatens what little composure she’s won back. “Even if we don’t always agree.” Sniffling, Kaylee nods in slow agreement, to the rest of it. “I know that… your right. But….even if I do the opposite, there is a chance I might be playing into its hands… I’ve always been the rebellious one.” There is a brief flicker of a smile, fleeting, that he can’t see from his vantage point.
Quiet stretches for a moment before Kaylee straightens, concern creasing her brow. “Something that has been bothering since that night. Why Edward? Why give him an ability? That ability?” More importantly… “And at what cost?” Power always has a price. “What if everything he’s had you doing has been for whatever plan this thing has?”
It’s not something Richard relishes considering, a grimace twisting his lips. “It’s… I don’t know. It’s possible,” he admits, straightening as she does, one hand coming up to rub between his eyes, “I’m not— at one hundred percent right now. I’ll have to give it some consideration and figure out what it might mean. I’m not half the predictive analyst that Edward was, but— “
He looks away, “I don’t know. After this I’ll have to give it some thought.”
There is a long sigh, “I need to talk to Kam… but I don’t dare get near her.” The nightmare showed Kaylee that. “Maybe at least see the collection they have.” There is a twitch at the idea of seeing Adam’s old things and a wave of mild nausea. “Compare what they have to what I saw. I need to know more, before I can even hope to start fixing this…” He can hear his sister, slowly pulling herself together… or at least trying to gather herself, even with tear dampened cheeks and exhaustion weighing down on her.
“But first,” Kaylee reaches for her brother’s hand, curling fingers around his and giving them a gentle squeeze. An attempt to give him comfort in return. “First we get your family back,” her attention pulls itself to the world beyond the small window, worry etched into her features. “…and attempt not to destroy the world in the process.”
Kaylee’s head shake side to side slowly, a touch of amusement on her lips, “World’s always needing saving.”
“World can wait,” Richard quips, fingers squeezing hers back firmly, “Let’s save our family first.”