Author's Note: It's been a while, but this story is back, like me, like all the others. I'm working on it. I'm working on anything...anything...that will take my mind off my life. I just...need my characters to live for me for a while.
Did you come here to watchme burn?
Let it show that I'm not always hiding.
Come all the way down and watch me burn.
I won't let it show that I'm not always flying.
So on the way down I'll watch you burn.
--Three Days Grace
"I cannot believe you got that drunk." Dani looked at Wisteria reproachfully as the green girl splashed her face with ice cold water in their small white bathroom.
"I only got a little buzzed, was all. I was not drunk." Wisteria replied calmly, pressing the white towel into her face.
"After that much whiskey? You were drunk."
"Whatever you say, Dani." Wisteria turned and regarded her best friend with a certain sense of apathy. Dani's blue eys were glaring angrily underneath her blue-tipped blonde pixie cut hair. The tall white girl had her arms crossed, as usual.
"You kissed Rowan!"
"Did I?" Wisteria's tone was offhand.
"Before slapping him."
"Well, he shouldn't have kissed me."
Dani sighed. "No, you kissed him."
Wisteria smirked. "That's not how I remember it."
She could tell Dani was about to blow a fuse in frustration. "You don't remember anything at all!"
"Exactly."
There was a pause as Wisteria knelt beside her bed and felt in the space underneath.
"What are you doing?" Dani asked impatiently.
"I thought we'd go visit an old friend of mine." She called back, still rummaging under the bed.
"You're under restriction."
"I am," Wisteria agreed, pulling her head back from under the bed frame, holding up an I.D. "But Grabrielle Docks isn't."
Dani merely covered her face with her hand and sighed.
One got used to pain after a while. the after-effects of the drug was that the numb feeling went away and was replaced by tense muscles and old shocks of pain. Arianne barely felt any of it. She barely moved when the feeling came back to her limbs, and didn't move at all when footsteps came toward the cold, dark room. She barely even lifted her eyes as the door opened and light streamed in. White stood there, smiling that cold smirk.
"Good afternoon, mutant. How was your lesson?"
She didn't answer, only stared blankly at him from where she lay. Arianne got to her feet slowly, her eyes hollow and limbs obeying automatically to a thoughtless command. White and Arianne were locked in a staring competition that ended once White spoke in a smug voice.
"It's time for a different lesson, mutant. Come." He turned away, but she only stared at his back.
Why should I follow his--
Her thought was interrupted by a shock of pain that her muscles responded to instantly, carrying her forward after White. Thoughts seemed sluggish, almost controlled. They were often interrupted or replaced.
My name is--
MP0013.
Why should I follow his command?
He allows you life.
I have to get out of here.
There is no escape.
White had stopped outside of wide metal doors that had slid back into a wide room, empty and welll lit.
"After you." White said with a smirk.
I don't want to go in there.
You have no choice.
I don't want--
Once again her muscles responded to the shock of pain. She stepped inside the room and waited.
White's voice floated from the walls. "Your collar and manacles have been shut off from causing you dicipline white using you powers. Denfend yourself."
What does that...
That sound of grinding gears met her ears and her muscles tensed, the hairs on the back of her neck raising in apprehension. Her eyes darted around, waiting to see where the eerie noise came from. A noise like a loud gunshot filled the white room as a red beam narrowly missed her ear and hit the opposite wall. Arianne spun around, watching dozens of tiny lazers all trained on her.
Oh, shit.
They readjusted as she took a step back, and then all began to fire at once.
Arianne had never fought before. She didn't know how to fight, how to defend herself or dodge firing lazers. So she didn't understand why she was dropping to the groun, raising one arm above her head, and crawling toward a piece of metal that had fallen off one of the walls. Her first thought was the use her power. It was from that muddled voice that confused her, not her own mind.
No. You don't need your powers. You can't even control them. Think!
The lazers were trailing after her hitting where she had been only seconds before.
Heat-seekers. The phrase came to mind out of nowhere. the metal she had been crawling toward was hot to the touch. Before she thought about it, she flung it at one of the lazers. It stuck in the wall next to it, and there was a momentary pause as the lazers turned and blasted the one spot, taking out two or three. There was momentary chaos as hot shrapnel flow everywhere, beams from the lazers ricocheting everywhere. Though she was trying to stay as low as possible, Arianne felt a sharp sear of pain in her left shoulder blade.
Then all of the firing stopped. Arianne looked up to see pockmarks where the lazers had fired and been hit. Skill or brilliance had nothing to do with it.
It was only sheer dumb luck she lived through that.
These thoughts raced through her mind before she fainted.
Arianne woke to a sharp blow to her ribs. Her eyes opened heavily to take in one of the guards that had raper her the other night.
"Wake up, mutie." His gnarled hand pulled her up painfully by the hair. "Boss ain't too happy with you, he ain't. Says you cheated him of a good show."
She glared at him and spat at him, her first instinct to bite him. He merely grinned evilly.
"Now, now, mutie. You ain't gonna last long. Might as well play nice." He leaned forward. Arianne could smell the hot stench of his breath. "Ya see, we don't care if ya die or not. An' ya gonna die, no doubt about that. Ya got no muscle on ya."
He straightened up and kicked a tray toward her, spilling liquid on the stone floor. 'Your dinner, mutie."
Arianne had been staring listlessly away from him most of the time he had been there, but as he turned she spoke in a dead tone. "My name is Arianne."
He only slammed the door in response. She didn't move.
They were trying to break her. They probably would. She felt numb already. Memories and thoughts came slowly. But one resounded loud and clear: survive.
Arianne ate the bread and cheest listlessly and drank the water without tasting any of it. She stared at the tray for a moment then picked it up and aimed for a stone on the wall. The tray hit close--low but close. She continued to throw the tray at her target, metal sounding off stone, until ever throw hit the exact spot she looked at.
"Where are we?" Dani sounded panicky as they pulled up next to a dark and dingy alleyway in the bad section of town. "Why are we here?"
Wisteria got out without answering. She walked into the alleyway, stopped by a tall man who swung back his overcoat that had been concealing his gut and a pistol. "This area is restricted, miss."
Wisteria smirked. "Really?" Quicker than the eye could follow Wisteria snatched the gun from his belt loop and twisted back his right arm as he reached a hand to stop her.
Arachne looked up in a disgruntled manner as three loud booms sounded on her door. "I tol' yeh no' to bother meh, Antonio. Yeh don' lissen, mate." She had all intentions of poisoning him when when another bang accompanied her sentiment. That was before the door was kicked in and Antonio was thrown in head first. Arachne examined the girl in the doorway before smirking broadly. "Wisteria, love! How are yeh?"
"I've been better, Arachne." Wisteria entered, closely gollowed by a scowling blond. "And I've bene better for three reasons. One, before I didn't have to chase you down. Two, before I didn't have to kick in the door. Three, before I wasn't cheated out of five-hundred dollars." Wisteria glared at her. "I want my money back."
Arachne leaned back in her chair. "Mate, I'm a thief. I stole yeh're money, made a profit. Yeh ai' gettin' money back, love."
Wisteria's eyes narrowed "I'm sorry to hear that." Her eyes began glowing a deep emerald, but Arachne held up her hand hastily.
"Now, now, love. Don' be gettin' hasty. Can't give your money back. What I give yeh is information." Arachne pushed the sunglasses back up closer to her irisless eyes. That sun coming through the doorway was murder. "There been some...new addition to the city la'ely. Politician, the like. Bad crowd. Migh' be who yeh're looking fer." Arachne slid a folder across the table and Wisteria took.
Wisteria leafed through the documents then looked up. "These authentic."
"I don't lie. Meh honor means meh life."
"You never spoke a truer word." Wisteria closed the folder. "New marks?"
"We won't need that." The blonde said quickly, having been silent before hand. Wisteria glared at her, then spoke again.
"Fake I.D. has expired, Arachne."
"She won't be getting a new one." Dani interrupted again, her eyes blazing.
Arachne smirked, one fang showing. "This yeh're chaperoane, Wist? Becoming of yeh. Keep yeh in line."
"You bet I will." Dani said fiercely.
Wisteria turned to Arachne. "See you next week,Arachne, without the chaperoane." She marched out, the blonde following. Arachne had trouble suppressing a laugh.