001 - A Passing Storm

[agroovyblue]

A dream without Charles is a rare thing, but she has his essence with him. She's stretched out on the lawn, his cat curled up next to her stomach and purring loudly. As she looks up in the sky, the clouds form the distinct shape of people she's known. The dark clouds are Charles' mother and step-father. Her own parents. Everyone she's always been afraid has ever wanted to hurt her or Erik. But then the skies lighten and she can see the good people, too. She can see the professors who all thought Charles was a little odd, but who recognized his brilliance, she can see the young man who always asks her for a cup of coffee when she picks up the newspaper. They're all there for her to see.

Soon, the clouds are changing into other people and things. She watches as a purple dragon chases a blue butterfly through the clouds. They slide in and out of the other clouds and she's sure she even hears the dragon roar, though she could be mistaken by that. She must be mistaken by that. She must also be mistaken when the dragon begins to look a lot more like Cain than any animal. She curls her hand a little in the kitten's fur when the dragon starts flying lower and lower and closer to her. Does he mean to eat her? Is that to be her punishment for abandoning him in favor of Charles? The clouds start to darken again and the wind begins to howl. Lightning cracks against the sky and her hand tightens even more.

And then, just like that, the dragon/Cain catches the butterfly and swishes away again. Her hand eases as the skies turn back to normal. When she finally lets go, she's shocked out of her reverie by the kitten pouncing on her stomach. Before she can do anything about it, the kitten runs off.

She gets up after a minute and follows in the direction of the kitten, calling after her. "Blueberry. Blueberry!" She's not sure what she'll do if the kitten's run off somewhere, especially since it's her fault for hurting the poor thing. Relief floods her when she sees the kitten sitting by the door as if she was just waiting for someone to let her in. She's licking down the spots of fur she can reach that are still sticking up from Raven's tight grip. It takes her a moment to realize that Blueberry is not alone.

"Oh, hello."

Comments

[agroovyblue]

There's something Raven feels she should be remembering, something about Charles and his diving into the water, but she can only focus on what's right in front of her. Someone who has power over water. That does sound an awfully lot like the things she and Charles could do. They don't have the same power, but they do have power.

"You control it well. You were never scared that someone would find out what you could do?" That is probably her greatest fear. Not just that someone will find out. That the wrong person will find out and things will go back to the way they used to be.

[waterfell]

It was very different for her. She used to be cautious for the simple sake of having that secret to share with friends, to bring them closer and bind them all together. Now, what does that matter?

Their powers had been mistrusted by the people of Earth a very long time ago, but only a few years ago, Sailor V had made newspaper headlines as a heroine. And while it might be prudent to keep such things from their enemies, their enemies had already known from the start.

Besides, she joined them.

"I'm not afraid," she says clearly. "Besides, don't you think I blend in more than this normally?" It's a hint at the truth.

[agroovyblue]

That piques Raven's curiosity and though she is curious, she also has to know. Did she remember something about Charles finding someone like him? Or was that some figment of a dream? She's never imagined finding someone just like her. Having someone who has powers is about as close as she thinks she'll ever get and it's enough for her. But now, the possibility...it's compelling.

"I don't know. You could not want to blend in." She isn't sure why someone would want to do that, but it is a valid option.

[waterfell]

"I have my own reasons for wanting to sometimes. That's also my choice," Mercury says simply. The nearer truth is that there are two separate lives she lives when she's awake; and she doesn't cross them.

"However, my power and who I am right now are important to me. I won't sacrifice them or put them aside."

[agroovyblue]

"Sometimes you have to sacrifice things for the people you care about," Raven says simply. She's not sure where she would be without Charles, but she also doesn't really want to think about it. She made her choice years ago and she's never really looked back since. This is who she is, now, and she's happy - mostly - with it. That's not to say that she doesn't use her powers. She's had to on more than a few occasions. It's just that her first thought isn't how to use her powers, it's how to do what she needs to do with the least exposure to them both.

[waterfell]

She wants to sneer. Even a year ago, she would have. It's more noble-sounding talk that never means anything because it's either a lie in the end, or it's useless and gets nowhere anyway.

But, these days, there are people she'd be willing to sacrifice for herself: the ones who've stayed by her. Somehow, the words to dismiss that don't make it to her lips.

It still comes as a caution. "Thinking that way can leave you unprepared to face reality."

[agroovyblue]

"Unless you've already done it," Raven answers. "Unless you're already doing it." She could have her own life. She could leave Charles alone and she could go out and be someone else. Anyone else. But to do that would be to leave Charles in a world he can't cope with and, maybe just as importantly, a world that can't cope with him. She has no illusions about what would happen to him if she left. At best, he'd probably be locked up in some asylum somewhere. At worst? More experiments. Many more until either they killed him or he killed them.

"Believe me, I'm not thinking about some schoolgirl fantasy. I'm not Sleeping Beauty, giving up a hundred years in exchange for her Prince Charming."

[waterfell]

Mercury smiles coldly. She likes someone seeing through fairy tales to the cold and bitter stories they are. She has no more patience with them; she was one of the ones killed by the tragic princess who couldn't live without the prince - or let anything else live, catching up everything and everyone else around her in a twisted Romeo and Juliet.

"You're interesting," she concedes. After a moment, she speaks further. "I don't have any sweet words like 'I'd do this for their sake', but there are people I fight alongside. Maybe it's the same."

[agroovyblue]

"You must not have any brothers or sisters." Technically, she supposed, she didn't have any either, but she'd made Charles her sister. They were as much family as if they'd actually been born together. Or at least born two years apart, which was about the difference. "Because then you would. You'd do just about anything for their sake."

Especially after everything that Charles has been through.

[waterfell]

[There's a moment before she answers, while the truth of her waking life wars with the feelings of her dreams. Ami, born as an only child, speaks through Mercury.]

I have one brother. And, I won't let go of him.

[Cloud, who she's even betrayed others for already - though her words are grasping and selfish rather than endearing.]

[agroovyblue]

"Then I think you might know how I feel. I'd do anything for him." Raven looks in the house. He should be here already and it concerns her that he's not, but somehow, she's also not surprised. She's concerned. She's not panicked. If she were panicked, she wouldn't be out talking to this woman.

"Maybe more so because he's not a blood brother." She's not sure why she says that, but that, too, seems right.

[waterfell]

The flash of similar thinking hits her with surprise.

"I understand that," she says finally, mildly for her. Cloud has no blood relation to her, but after everything they'd been through together, and the dreams where he did, they'd both gradually slipped into the habit of seeing things that way.

"I wonder if, growing up, I would have liked my mother to adopt a child to be my sibling."

[agroovyblue]

"His mother didn't adopt me," Raven says simply. "Charles did." That's the truth, but the truth is far more complicated than her statement. He'd made sure that his mother and step-father believed that she was a part of the family. He couldn't change much, but he could do that. And, in return, she'd done her best to look after him. It had seemed like a fair trade at the time and now it's just the way things were.

[waterfell]

"It's the first I've heard of a child adopting a sibling on his own," Ami remarks. The truth occurs to her as she says it: "He must have wanted you there."

For someone to want her with him so much that he went that far to make it happen... Raven is lucky. Perhaps even enviable.

[agroovyblue]

"We wanted each other." It's probably more accurate to say that they needed each other. She needed to know that she wasn't alone and he needed someone to protect him from the monsters who were supposed to be the ones looking out for him. "So he made it happen."

[waterfell]

Mercury, who had no qualm using her own mental powers to... adjust the thinking of her fellow students in school to make it more pleasant for herself, does not object to the implication of Charles using his. In fact, she smiles, a slightly cold smile but they most often seem to be.

"It was a good decision. Taking what you want is the privilege of the people who can do it."

[agroovyblue]

Raven isn't sure if she agrees with the sentiment. Just because you can have something doesn't mean that you should. Just because she can be anyone she wants to be, it doesn't mean that she's going to go around sliding into other people's lives. It wouldn't be right. Charles...Charles can't really help it. Sliding into other people's minds is as much a part of him as it is a part of breathing.

"That was a good decision for us, yes." For other people, or for other decisions, she's not going to judge.

[waterfell]

A shrug. While she certainly advocates using her powers to do whatever she wishes, it's not as if she'll force others to do the same.

"And for me," she says simply.

[agroovyblue]

Raven looks off into the house. "I'm surprised that Charles hasn't shown up by now." He would have known that someone had arrived and, by now, curiosity should have overcome him enough to at least found a spot to look at the pair of them. If he knew her, then he should have come down by now. Raven's not sure what to think about the fact that he hasn't.

[waterfell]

Ami doesn't consider it strange. She doesn't have much experience to compare it to, and somehow....the dreams rarely involve more than one other person. Sometimes, they do, but it's strange.

"He should come to greet a guest," she says comfortably. "Is something keeping him?"

[agroovyblue]

"I..." Raven looks slightly troubled. "I don't know. He should be here by now unless he's avoiding you for some reason. Or avoiding me." She has no idea why he'd want to do either. She certainly hasn't done anything that he would be upset over. Hiding is not something she really expects from Charles.

[waterfell]

The only thing any Charles has ever objected to in front of Ami was when she wanted to try Cerebro for herself - and she'd backed down when he said no. Well, if he's angry over something else she doesn't even know, she won't worry about it.

Raven will, it seems. And Ami doesn't suggest that Charles might just be busy; she spent too long rationalizing things like that back in her world, years ago.

"Since it's just us, shall we go on?"

[agroovyblue]

"Go on?" Raven asks. She's not sure what Ami means. Is she inviting herself in? It's a little presumptuous, but Raven is willing to let it go. She's fairly sure she'll like Ami once she gets to know her a little better. Her morals may be a bit different, but that's never really stopped her from liking someone. Charles' morals are sometimes in the gray area.

"Go on where?"

[waterfell]

"Inside, of course." Yep. Dead on. She no longer accepts being shut out and sidelined. She's harmless like this, really, though; even personable.

"After all, I came all this way to visit here."

[agroovyblue]

"Yes. Yes, of course." She opens the door and gestures Ami in. "Would you like a cup of tea? Water? Juice? About the only thing we don't have is soda." The last thing she wants is a hyper Charles on her hands. He's already hyper enough without the caffeine. She'd do without the coffee in the house if she thought she'd be able to survive the mornings without it.