SIXKILLER

Hahaha. A chapter that's longer than the rest. Finally. And you know the best part? I finished it at the same sitting. Usually I'd repeat a chapter twice or even three times just to get it right. But this time? Perfect. Came out just the way I wanted. It's cool. I like it. Rachel's having some problems.

Wow. I'm uploading fast these days; must be because exams are almost over. *Phew* I'll probably post this fast if I get the chapter done as fast as I did today.

Chapter Twenty-three

Strange for a nightmare; it was daytime.

There was none of the darkness and spooky sounds. Rachel saw everything clearly. Just like it happened.

Only this time there was complete silence. As she stepped on the ridge and peeked down she felt mildly dizzy. It was a long way down. A long way to go down without wings Rachel thought to herself.

Rachel felt a presence above her. Tobias. Soaring high on thermals. A breeze caught her hair and she thought that when this was over, maybe she'd join him. It was not a bad day.

Nice day. Good weather. Doing normal things. At school.

Nothing could go wrong, yet why was there this queasy feeling in her stomach?

Fear. Rachel never liked it. Her usual response was to floor it and go ahead. But the technique did not work. Besides the uneasiness there was a vague feeling of de-ja-vu.

Rachel, as usual, ignored the feeling, she got ready, waved at the school and smiled at the teacher who was going to control the safety line. "You better not let that go." Rachel joked, "Its my first time at this."

"What, this rope? You wouldn't fall if I let go. Well, you'll go down a couple feet- that's all. But don't worry." The teacher grinned, "It's a piece of cake. You'll see."

"I don't worry." Rachel muttered.

The wind caught her hair again. Rachel raked at her hair and then placed the helmet. She turned around one more time, "Do I look good?"

The question wasn't really aimed at the teacher. He replied and Rachel ignored him. She didn't ignore the next reply. You look great. As always.

Before starting, Rachel located her friends; Jake, Cassie, Marco, and Ax. They were all there; some for curiosity, some to cheer her on, and some just waiting for her to screw up -Marco.

"Here we go." Rachel yelled. And the school cheered as she started to go over the brick wall; the hardest part, then, she felt her trainers hit the mat that was hung on the building wall –for safety, incase at the first steps you banged or scrapped your self, the rest of the wall was un protected, just this little bit at the top.

The cheers melded together into a robotic groaning and disappeared in the background.

Rachel found herself grinning madly at the teacher's face –who was leaning over controlling her descent –just in case.

The first to go down; Rachel had been thrilled to be the first. She loved the rush of danger. And this for her was a miniature version of what she liked to do. This was harmless fun. Sure, this would have been a lifetime ordeal for some loner or a thing to gloat about for your average air headed girl –who may not actually attempt this. But come on, Rachel groused to herself, this is my little time off! To do what I'm good at and actual show off!

It was the end of fun and the beginning of dangerous when –very suddenly- the teacher's face was yanked out of her view.

At first she thought nothing of it.

But then there was scuffling. A grunt. Metal clinking and an audible snap –a rope snapping.

Rachel lost foothold and careened into the building wall. The school groaned and then started cheering madly as she righted herself. She was just out of the mat's reach. So there was no protection as she banged herself.

"RA-CHEL! RA-CHEL! RA-CHEL!"

"Help!" Rachel croaked. Her heart was stuck at the back of her throat, why wasn't she falling if the rope broke? Which rope broke anyway? "Mr. White?"

No answer. Rachel shot a look at the skies. Tobias was starting to flap towards her but he was too far away.

Then she heard, Tobias! Why are you heading towards the building? Prince Jake says your activity may bring Yeerk attention. He requests that you fly over the building and away.

No way! There's someone on the roof! The teacher's knocked out!

We do know that some of the teachers are controllers. Ax cautioned. Even if there is a problem. This is not a good idea.

No answer. Tobias kept going higher.

After a while she heard Tobias comment quietly to her. Rachel. Climb down, quickly!

Rachel was doing just that. But instead of feeling outrage or tingling excitement at the rush of adrenaline –her original emotions- she felt fear. She felt sick to her stomach. If she went down she could not morph to get out of it.

Something was going horribly wrong.

She felt someone's eyes on her. She looked up.

Time seemed to stop all together.

"RA-chel! RA-chel! RA-chel!"

The school was cheering madly, oblivious to the danger.

And again, the cheering melded into strange faraway moaning; she had to strain to hear it. And everything else was blurry. She couldn't see anything. Was she starting to faint? It seemed like it. She could see pink and green molts appearing in her vision. There was buzzing in her head and she could barley swallow. Her breathing was shallow. She was helpless. Stuck less than halfway down the building, clinging to dear life with a rope that's undoubtedly unstable.

The eyes! That's what she saw so clearly. The large dark eyes. Black poison. And here's what Rachel did not understand.

The girl -she was not smiling. Or sneering. Or grinning at her. She didn't look angry. Her face seemed clear of any emotion –except this- this deep concentration. A careful look. There was no hardness to her eyes or face –at that particular moment- she looked so beautiful. So dangerous. Yet her eyes had a repulsive look. Her face was anything but dangerous. It was a contrast. The face was not kind. No. It was something else. The expression did not belong to a human. It was almost indescribable. The coldness of her stare was there but untouchable.

She didn't tell Rachel anything. She didn't say anything.

She didn't say her name.

She offered no reason why she was doing this.

She just did it.

She let go of the safety rope. She must have snapped the one tied to the beam first. But, the significance was; she let go of the rope.

Rachel did not know what she heard first; the screaming of the rope as it whipped out of its harness? The gasp that came from the audience? The screaming? Tobias's yelling? No.

She knew what she heard first. It was whispering. She heard it because the wind brought the words to her ears. The girl at the top was whispering something. A look of fascination on her face. A twinkle of excitement. And after whispering she slowly brought a clenched fist to the air. Cheering. Praising Rachel.

"Ra-chel! Ra-chel! Ra-chel!"

It was soft husky whispering. It brought a chill down Rachel's spine. A wave of sickness passed over her. A cold tingle in her fingers.

Then the girl must have let go. Because the other hand, the one that was holding the rope went up. A guarded expression came upon the girl's face. Then she smiled ever so gently.

Rachel plummeted.

The rope screamed madly. Or was it whining? Yes. The school screamed. The rope whinnied as it was yanked out of the metal harness.

Horrendous nose.

It was an awful feeling. Falling free flight; falling, tumbling in the air with the knowledge that the hard concrete was the only thing that was going to catch you.

And as if in a movie, a dramatic pan-out as the non-existent cameras zoomed away form the girl's eyes. It was like one minute; Rachel was looking at just the dark huge eyes and they were filling her entire vision. And the next second, the girl was a tiny silent figure far above.

But the girl had not turned away. She had not broken eye contact. She was watching Rachel fall. She had leaned over and her long black hair hung down around her face.

Rachel must have screamed.

She saw how dangerously far she was from the lip of the building. She knew impact was not far away.

But the two girl's eyes were still locked on each other. And an understanding, so deep and far away took place. What the girl was thinking of was unknown to Rachel. All she knew that she disappeared form her view for a second.

And the rope went taught.

The rope that had tangled around her left leg in the fall.

An audible SNAP and a bright seam of pain hit her brain. Rachel's cloudy vision noted that she was not too far away from the concrete. The girl must have known that too.

THUD!

She hit the ground. Hard. Her feet made contact with the pavement for a millisecond then gave way; her back hit the concrete. The impact knocked her breath away.

She heard thundering of shoes as a few dozen people rushed towards her. Someone yelling "Don't crowd her!"

"Someone call the ambulance!"

"God, is she dead?!"

"Rachel!?"

"Give her space!"

And then, with her darkening vision, she saw her. Still there. Still watching. So high above her. Untouchable. Unreachable.

Acknowledging the fact gave rise to a wave of sick anger. Then intense hate. Followed by an overwhelming tidal of fear.

"Oh, my god, she's dead!" Hysterical wailing.

"Rachel!"

"Call nine-one-one!"

"I knew this sport was dangerous!"

"Rachel!"

"Sir! We sent Ann to do that."

She could barley make out the lips moving. Maybe it was her imagination. No way could she have seen that. But they were moving all right.

"Ra-chel! Ra-chel! Ra-chel!" Husky whispering. The words so harsh to her ears. Rachel blinked and the eyes disappeared from her view. The face was no longer there. Or was it?

Rachel turned her head away and tried to swallow. For some reason her vision was limited to the spot so high above her.

"Don't move!"

"Rachel!"

"Where's the school nurse?"

"Rachel!"

"Back off people. Back off!"

"Rachel!"

"Oh, no, no, she's goanna die!"

"Rachel!"

"Shut-up. No one's going to die."

"I've never seen anyone. Die. Oh god!"

"Rachel."

"Rachel, wake up!"

"Argh!" Rachel yelped.

"Hey. Its me." Cassie grabbed Rachel's arm.

Rachel shoved her off. "Don't touch me."

Cassie jerked away, surprised. She shot a look at the nurse, reminding her that the conversation should be limited.

Rachel found herself getting angrier. "I know."

Cassie looked awkwardly at Rachel. "Are you okay?"

"Uhuh."

The nurse finished changing the IV drip and took off. Cassie looked around nervously. "I was worried when you wouldn't wake up. I hope I didn't bother you."

Rachel's nightmare wasn't out of her mind yet; the memory caused her to shiver. Then she got angry with herself. Why was she afraid?

"When I get that-"

"If you're going to sit here swearing like you did yesterday and the day before, then I'm leaving."

Rachel folded her arms across her chest and stared blankly ahead.

"Come on." Cassie said gently, she sat down on the bed, "You could talk to me. I'm your friend."

"What is there to talk about?" Rachel's voice was on edge. Tense.

Cassie raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? What? Isn't all this plenty to talk about?"

"All what?"

"The attitude." Cassie looked upset. "Is there something that's bothering you?"

"No," Rachel snapped, but then she stopped, looked at Cassie and said, "If there is, you promise you wouldn't tell Jake?"

Cassie laughed and said, "why would I tell Jake?"

Rachel gave Cassie a look.

"Okay. Okay, I wouldn't tell."

Rachel started slowly, unsure of herself, "You know, ever since I came here I can't remember parts of what happened."

Cassie shrugged, "That's okay. Your brain probably doesn't want to remember it."

Rachel shook her head, "no, that's not what I meant. What I mean was that I…Look. I remember exactly what happened. I remember how it happened. When it happened. What people were saying –all the way down to being in the ambulance. Heck, I also remember things that I didn't take notice of before. But what I don't remember is the way I felt about it."

"How do you mean?" Cassie said carefully.

"I've had dreams about it." Rachel said, "well, nightmares. And Jeez. Must have had the same nightmare over and over again. And it changes. At first, it was exactly like it as it happened. Then…well, I still fall. I still talk to Tobias but I change. My feelings about it change. And I can't remember. I get confused. I mean, I'm starting to think that I was actually afraid. Like, afraid that I was falling."

"Rachel." Cassie said gently. "Anyone would have been afraid. It was a long fall with plenty of time to think about it."

"No." Rachel said, sharper than she intended. "Not that type of afraid. It was a different fear in my dream. I don't know. It was like I could…I knew it was happening –in my dream. I knew I was going to fall if I went over the wall. I knew what would happen. I knew that if I took the decision to go down she's going to come. But you know what? That doesn't stop me. At first it was; she's not going to stop me from doing what I want to do. I'm doing it and if she does anything I'll pulverize her, I'll kill her!

"But then, the dreams change, I'd know it's going to happen, it's like a gut feeling; I just know something bad is going to happen. And you know what? You know the worst part? I continue because I'm afraid of waiting for her to show up. All of a sudden I'm not angry or outraged at her, for doing what she did. I'm just afraid. I just want to crawl away and do what she wants because that would be so much better than facing her."

With out noticing it Rachel's eyes blurred slightly, frustration rose. "I mean, I don't know what's gotten into to me. But when I look back at what happened I'm so angry. She was acting so cowardly and all because she wouldn't face me on a head-on confrontation. Instead she weasels around with the equipment. But then I have the dreams and I find out that her weaseling around was like this act of mercy and I should be thankful because she wouldn't face me head on, I wake up and I'm angry that I was relieved. The nightmare ends and I'm absolutely terrified because somewhere along the line she knows something, I don't know how, but she knew something."

Cassie was mesmerized, taking in ever word Rachel was saying, "What do you mean she knows something? Why are you afraid?"

"I don't know." Rachel looked agitated, "When I'm awake I'd think it was cowardly, her act, attacking me when I had no defenses. But when I'm dreaming it's like, I don't know. She's saying something. Something important. Like warning me. But no, it's. I don't know! I don't know how to explain it. But it gets me mad."

Cassie didn't say anything.

Rachel laughed -at herself. "What am I talking about?"

"Its okay." Cassie said, "I bet it was the fall. You know the frustration of not getting to use your powers to the full extent. By morphing you could have gotten away."

Rachel snapped her fingers. "That's it! Morphing. Why didn't I think of that?" She grinned. "I'm just waiting to sink my teeth into her."

"Yeah." Cassie said dryly, "We wouldn't wait to find out why she did it."

Rachel looked up, "Yeah, I wonder why."

"So. You feeling better?"

"Yeah." Rachel admitted, "It seems a bit stupid now, after I talked about it. Yeah. It must have been nothing. I couldn't deal with not being able to grab her and smash her head to the concrete. That must be it. Nothing to worry about."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Right, nothing to worry about. By the way Rachel's not having a metal breakdown and she didn't cry or anything. She's just…confused. It's not the sort of thing Rachel is used to. She's used being up front where all the action is. Used to being able to grab the enemy and deal physically. So, when it comes to mentally challenging the enemy and dealing without violence, well, it just doesn't fit our Rachel, does it?

If there is any confusion about the ropes ignore it; I figured there's two lines, you know? One that's fixed to the building and another that could be used to shimmy down the wall, I don't know, I've never been abseiling but I've seen it happen.

Anyway, watch out for when Sixkiller meets Rachel. Who knows, maybe a bit more than sparks will fly. Maybe they wouldn't be able to touch each other at all.