Enneagon
Chapter 11: Knast
An Ivypool-centric chapter, for all you Ivy stans out there! I love my favorite badass, so enjoy!
Thank you to KitsuneStarzzz, your review cracked me up so much XD
Alrighty, on with the fic!
[Hexagon Academy, Briox]
[9.27.2065]
"Ivypool?", came the groggy voice from the other side of the bed. "Where are you going?"
Ivypool, closing her eyes in resignation, stopped in the middle of zipping up her jacket to make eye contact with Breezepelt. He had propped himself up on his elbow with the sheets draped haphazardly over his shoulder, yawning as he rubbed his eye with one knuckle.
"Ivy?", he croaked. His voice was almost rusty with disuse. "It's two in the morning, what…?"
Ivypool chewed on her lip, shooting one glance at her watch and another at Breezepelt. And to think, all that effort she had put into getting out of bed without disturbing Breezepelt, wasted. Now it looked like she was going to be late.
With another fleeting glance at her watch, she hurried forward and gave him a hug, before she ducked back toward the door. He looked puzzled when she pulled away, still busy trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "Ivypool, what's going on?", he asked, a little more firmly this time.
"Look, I'm gonna be late. I'll be back for class in the morning, so don't worry."
"That's not an answer!", he protested.
Ivypool closed the door, trying to block out the noises of Breezepelt's righteous indignation on the other side. He was annoyed and had every right to be, she would have been equally miffed had he up and left at two in the morning with no explanation to be given.
But it had to be this way. She gave the zipper of her jacket one final tug before giving up, instead opting to break into a swift jog down the hallway.
Hexagon at 2 am was like a different planet entirely. The hallways, empty, the common areas, silent. Every step she took seemed to echo off the walls in a cacophony of noise, so incredibly loud that she was surprised that no one came out of their rooms to look.
No one came.
The rows of doors stayed firmly shut. Hexagon was asleep.
Ivypool heaved an audible sigh of relief when she finally left the dormitory section of the Thunder sector. The danger that anyone would hear her was significantly slimmer in the classroom areas, where no one was sleeping.
She rounded another corner, passed another pair of smoke doors. The glass walls of the Thunder connective glinted coolly in the moonlight. She stepped out into the glass hall without hesitation, then stopped.
It was one thing to be in an entirely translucent hallway, floating miles in the air, when it was the middle of the day. Then, the rest of the school bustled around her. Students acted like the fact that seeing entire countries sprawled out an atmosphere below their feet was simply normal.
But when she was alone? And the only evidence of human life down on Earth were the billion pinpricks of light miles upon miles down? Ivypool couldn't help but pause, and stare in wonderment.
Or horror. Whichever one.
It took another glance at her watch for Ivypool to pull herself together. 2:14 am. She was already far, far too late. "...oh, Firestar's going to kill me", she muttered resignedly to herself. She crossed the rest of the Thunder connective without sparing another glance down, and stepped off into the Star sector just as the minute hand on her watch slid yet another notch forward.
It was 2:16 am when Ivypool finally pushed open the launch room doors. Firestar stood in the middle of it, fiddling with one of the screens, looking resolutely unamused.
"Ivypool", he said sharply. "You are aware that this is a great privilege? And that there are few, few people who would have the ability to do this?"
"Yes, Firestar", Ivypool said hastily, feeling very much chagrined. "I'm sorry I'm late."
He fixed her with a long, stern stare.
"Are you sure you want to go, Ivypool?", he said finally. She was surprised to find that there was no anger in his voice this time, more a tentative concern.
"...I don't have much of a choice, do I?", she responded drily. "I'm just doing what anyone would do."
"Ivypool, I'm fairly certain that there are plenty of people who would not-"
Ivypool knew this, of course. Most people would, as a matter of fact, be absolutely repulsed by even the idea. This, although this was an opportunity that most people were never presented with.
"Let's just go", Ivypool interjected.
Firestar shot her one last suffering look. Then he kicked aside Mistystar's atrocious white shag rug to reveal the I-M's metallic silver face, the glow of blue illuminating the room.
There was a picture of Dovewing above Mistystar's desk, the flicker of blue casting strange shadows across the smooth, pixelated face. Dovewing was smiling, proudly holding a paper crowned with Hexagon's golden stamp of merit. She looked so young. She couldn't have been any older than 14.
Ivypool locked eyes with that picture. Then, with Dovewing's broad smile burned into mer memory, she stepped into the I-M.
…
[Yecateryn, Briox]
[9.27.2065]
Firestar was driving.
There was no god-awful disco music this time. Ivypool wasn't sure whether StarClan deserved thanks for this or not. On one hand, she was spared from Firestar's painfully questionable taste in music. On the other hand, any distraction would have been very much welcome.
Ivypool decided she didn't like it here. Frost was already crusting over the car windows, an icy wind rattling the doors. The tall, polished glass of Yecateryn's downtown skyscrapers was chilly and impersonal in the way only Briox's most crime-ridden city could be. A pretty, gleaming mask over a roiling criminal underbelly.
It took over 20 minutes for the car to leave the sparkling unpleasantness of downtown Yecateryn behind. Firestar was navigating the car through a busy knot of freeways around the city, and by the time Firestar was finally able to maneuver onto the BY-4 North, Ivypool was starting to question whether she hadn't made a terrible mistake.
That picture of Dovewing. The blue eyes. The golden stamp of merit, clutched in a 14-year-old's proud fingers.
Ivypool shook herself.
"Firestar, how much further?", she croaked out, leaning forward in her seat. "The city of Knast is about 25 minutes north of here", he informed her, keeping his eyes glued firmly on the road. "We should arrive at about 3 am."
3 am.
Ivypool settled back in her seat. She could wait.
…
[Aesta Maximum Security Correctional Facility]
[Knast, Briox]
[9.27.2065]
Firestar stayed in the car, which in hindsight, was probably for the best. A pair of prison guards in navy blue uniforms waited outside the front gates, checking Firestar's ID before admitting the car into the parking lot. Then, one of the guards opened the door and offered to help Ivypool out of the car.
Ivypool ignored his proffered hand and stepped out of the car herself. Then, the two guards fell into step on either side of her, marching her along to the prison doors.
They checked her ID for a second time at the front doors, before the two guards walked her carefully into the well-lit entrance hall.
Ivypool supposed it was rather nice for a prison. Spacious, clean, with squishy couches lined up against one wall. The two guards gestured for Ivypool to take a seat as they went to speak with the woman at the front desk. Ivypool refused, instead opting to lean against the squishy armrest with one hand as the three prison employees conversed by the desk.
Dovewing's face, once again appearing in her mind, clear as day.
Is this what you felt? Standing in a prison hall, waiting?
No. Dovewing had watched the guards discuss her fate. Ivypool felt nothing of the sort. Where Ivypool was being treated with semi-fearful respect, Dovewing had most likely experienced sneering ridicule.
Ivypool couldn't explain the surge of sympathy that went through her. Surely Dovewing had deserved it?
Before she could make up her mind on this particular question, the two guards returned. "Miss, the prisoner you have requested audience with is being held in Cell Block D. Please, this way."
Neither of the guards would look her in the face, and Ivypool could imagine what the woman at the front desk had said to them. "Don't you dare be disrespectful! Don't you know who her father is?"
The guards, marching on either side of her like some kind of entourage, suddenly hoisted their weapons higher. "Careful, miss. You are entering a high security block."
It took all of Ivypool's strength not to respond with a biting reply of "Well shit, you don't say"
Footsteps, pounding down the hallway.
Leering faces, pressed up against the bars of their cells, grinning as Ivypool and her two guards walked past.
"Ooooh, whose pretty thing is this?", came a mocking jeer from one of the cells. "What's up, sweetheart? You lost?"
One of the guards smashed the butt of his gun threatening against the bars. "Inmate 54-K, I'd recommend you shut your mouth", he snapped. Then, to Ivypool, "Please don't mind him, miss. This way."
They turned a corner.
There was a cell, far in the back of the hall, a good distance from all the other inmates. Ivypool's breath hitched. She would have recognized that platinum colored hair anywhere.
Her hair, pulled together in a greasy bundle on top of her head. Her skin, ragged, nothing like the dewey glow she'd prided herself on at Hexagon. No makeup. No beautiful, hand-embroidered clothes.
Dovewing, as she'd never seen her before.
Her sister turned in her cell, shifting in that damned bright orange jumpsuit to face her visitor.
"Well, sister", she said bitterly. "Come to gloat?"
End Chapter 11
If you got that Knast joke, I love you
Look at Ivypool being a good sister, visiting Dovewing in prison!
Reviews are always appreciated!
Azra out!