*Sorcieré staggers on stage, looking quite hungover, while ignoring the amused looks from Fortune, her pain-in-the-ass muse.*
All right. Sit down, everyone, and let auntie Sorcieré have a word with you. No, it's not bad news, don't worry. Am I going to-? No, I'm not going to kill anyone else right now, so sit down, Ageless! ;)
*Glares at Ageless, but quickly looks away after Ageless' muse starts to flex its claws*
Violent little thing, are we? Anyway...after having discussed the future plotline with Rune and Ageless, almost the entire fic has been planned out, up until a few chapters from the end. From what I can see, there is somewhere between 25-40 chapters left, give or take a few. Yes, I know that seems like a lot, and trust me, I'd never intended for the fic to get this long, but these characters have a story to tell, and apparently they don't intend to let me go until I've written said story for them.
Luckily my summer holidays just started, giving me plenty of time to write (when I'm not trying to fit all my stuff into my new apartment *cough*). Anyway, I don't intend give up on this fic, and hopefully, you won't, either ^^
*Sorcieré staggers off stage again, mumbling something very unflattering about muses, Bacardi, graduation, and life in general*
A/N 1: To SilentPegasus and anyone else who might be interesting in some fighting and violence: VivaGlam, bless her dark soul *g*, has written a fight between Suzuka and Laetitia. It doesn't fit into the storyline, but it's good, and it would be a shame to just leave it on the harddrive ^^. The address is: http://www.dreamwater.net/madhouze/showdown.html
A/N 2: MissNovelist: I'm not sure if there will be other chapters that come in two versions. This was kind of a special case, sooo...^^
Archangel: If you're sadistic for liking it, what does it make me for thinking up and writing the graphic version in the first place? ;)
Sabrin: You're welcome - I see the two versions of the same scene as kind of a writing exercise, anyway *g*
WritingMoose: Zach, Hal, Aaron, and Pheonix have no idea where their teammates wandered off to - they just know that they headed downtown. And sure, the Shadow Alliance seems unstoppable...until one of their core-members die later on. Oops - did I say that out loud? Sorry. My bad *smirk*
Italics indicates thoughts/telepathy
* * *
Chapter Forty-Two: Through the Valley of Shadow and Death
* * *
As West had said, it only took about ten minutes to drive to the diner, and that was something Kyle was thankful for. Maybe he was just being paranoid, but he liked to know where all of his teammates were...just in case.
Kyle parked the car near the diner and got out, followed by West. The girls had left a note saying that they'd taken a cab, and Kyle really couldn't blame them - the many illegal cab services were a cheap way to get around, and it also saved them the trouble of finding a parking space.
Inside the diner the atmosphere was more chaotic than Kyle had imagined, and he frowned. Finding two teenage girls in this place probably wouldn't be easy. He shook his head, then looked at West and motioned towards the left part of the diner.
"You take that side, I'll take this. We'll meet back here, okay?"
West nodded and disappeared among the crowd, leaving Kyle alone to find his two teammates. His search proved fruitless, though. Deirdre and Prue were nowhere to be found, and Kyle made his way back to the entrance, only to find West waiting for him - alone.
"You didn't find them?" Kyle asked, starting to feel a bit worried.
West shook his head.
"No. I even took a look in the bar, and they weren't there, either."
They wouldn't have left, not this fast, Kyle decided. Something's wrong. We have to find them.
"Let's talk to the waitresses and see if any of them remembers where the girls went."
West frowned.
"Do you think something's wrong?"
"Not really," Kyle said, bending the truth a bit. He didn't want to make West worried because of something that was most likely nothing but paranoia. "Let's go," he suggested, motioning towards one of the waitresses. He didn't add how small a chance there were that one of the employees would actually remember two ordinary girls among all the customers.
* * *
Five minutes and several waitresses later, Kyle was starting to get more than a bit worried. Nobody remembered seeing Deirdre and Prue anywhere, and by now even West seemed slightly nervous.
"Am I the only one who has a bad feeling about this?" the boy asked, and there was none of his usual humor in the words.
Kyle sighed.
"There can be a dozen reasons why they're not here, okay? Maybe they picked someplace else, or left right before we arrived. We have no reason to suspect the worst." West opened his mouth, obviously to argue with Kyle, but the older mutant stopped him. "There's another waitress over there. Let's ask her," he said, and the words were more of an order than a suggestion.
West hesitated, then sighed.
"Sure," he mumbled and let Kyle lead the way across the room, to one of the corners where a waitress was cleaning one of the tables.
"Excuse me?" Kyle asked.
The woman looked up.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"We're looking for two of our friends - they were supposed to be down here, but we can't find them, and I wondered if you'd seen them. One of them is fifteen, with short, black hair, and she's about this tall," Kyle explained, indicating Deirdre's height with his hand. "The other is nineteen, with long, blonde hair, and she's a bit shorter. I think they arrived about forty minutes ago," he added, checking his watch.
The waitress nodded absently and continued to clean the table.
"Sure, they left with some friends about twenty minutes ago, I think. Didn't look too good, the youngest girl - cute kid, but she'd gotten a bit too much to drink," the woman explained. "She'll probably wake up with a bad hangover."
Kyle felt a shiver run down his spine as he started to get a horrible suspicion.
Friends?
"What did those friends look like?" he asked warily.
The waitress finally paused and frowned as she tried to recall her previous customers.
"One of the girls had blue hair," she finally said slowly. "The other looked Italian, I think. Or Greek. Never could tell the difference between those two," she added with a shrug, then continued to clean the tables. "There were a couple of guys, too, but I don't really remember how they looked."
Fuck!
"Thank you," Kyle managed to choke out, then hurried towards the door, followed by a bewildered West.
"What's wrong?" the younger boy asked, trying to keep up with Kyle.
Kyle tore open the door and hurried outside, taking a frantic look around.
They wouldn't go towards the apartments - too many people. But the alley...
"That waitress just described Melee and Nike, two of the members of the Shadow Alliance," he explained and motioned for West to follow him. "Dre and Prue are in serious trouble."
"What?!" West demanded. "But how did they know-"
"Let's find them first," Kyle interrupted. "The questions can wait until later," he said and ran down to the alley, charging up his powers to fend off a possible attack.
"'Dre?!" he called, but there was no reply. "Deirdre!"
A motionless but familiar shape a bit into the alley caught Kyle's attention, and he felt a chill run down his spine.
No...
Kyle took a step towards Deirdre, and saw another shape further into the alley, hidden among the shadows. Behind him he heard West arrive, and he made a quick decision. Deirdre was still breathing, he could see that. Checking on Prue would be first priority, then...if it even *was* her. The shadows made it impossible to see anything.
"Check on 'Dre," Kyle told West and continued to the unmoving shape that lay further into the alley. One of the trashcans partially blocked his view, and he felt a flicker of annoyance through his nervousness.
That trashcan hides the body complete for anyone who just passes by the alley, Kyle realized, and felt a growing feeling of unease. But that was just a coincidence, wasn't it? It had to be - Deirdre hadn't been hidden from view, then why should Prue?
A few more steps and he could see past the trashcan that had blocked his vision. "Prue?" he asked hesitantly. No reply, and the bad feeling grew worse. He quickly moved the trashcan to let some light into the dark alley, and-
-The ground was red....a dark, liquid red, almost black in appearance, and it took less than a second for Kyle to see what had happened.
Oh, God...
Instinctively, he almost kneeled to check for a pulse, but the more logical part of his mind stopped him. It would be of no use - it was already too late. A deep cut through the throat, severing the windpipe...nobody could survive that.
"Kyle!"
West's voice tore through the air, making Kyle flinch slightly. It felt almost...wrong...to hear someone talk in a place where-
No...
"Kyle?" West repeated, this time questioningly. Kyle didn't react, and the younger mutant continued. "Dre is okay...she's unconscious, but I can't see any serious injuries. What about Prue?"
She's...
"Kyle?" West moved closer to see what was going on, but Kyle held up a hand, finally snapping out of his state of shock.
"Don't," he said in a hoarse voice.
West stopped, torn between worry and confusion. He wanted to see what had happened, but the look on Kyle's face...something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong.
"Kyle? What's-?"
"She's dead," Kyle whispered. "There's nothing we can do."
West paled and his eyes widened with shock.
"Dead? But she can't-" West shook his head. "You're wrong, she's not dead!" he denied, almost angrily, and moved closer.
Kyle sighed in defeat and let the boy pass. There was nothing he could do, and he knew it. West took a step closer - and froze dead in his tracks.
"Prue?" he whispered, and slowly sank to his knees. "Prue?" he repeated, louder this time, and Kyle lowered his eyes in silent sympathy.
West reached out and brushed a lock of blonde, red-stained hair out of the pale face with infinitely gentleness.
"Prue..." he pleaded anguished. "Come on, wake up. Please wake up!"
"West..." Kyle began, and reached out to put his hand on the boy's shoulder, but West pushed it away with an angry movement.
"No!" he snapped, and Kyle could see the tears form in his eyes. "No..." he repeated, and the first tear rolled down his face and fell to the ground, mixing with the blood.
"West...I'm sorry," Kyle tried again, but there was no reaction from the boy, only quiet sobbing as he watched the lifeless body of his friend, for the first time really realizing what had happened.
I'm sorry, Kyle repeated silently, and felt his own eyes burn with unshed tears. He'd seen death before, and hated it. Nobody, least of all a seventeen-year-old boy like West, should ever have to see something like this.
Kyle took a step away to give West some time alone, and headed towards Deirdre's unconscious body. He reached down to pick her up and-
-A scream pierced the air, making Kyle spin around. At the end of the alley, beside an open back door that led to the nightclub, a young woman clutched her shocked boyfriend tightly while sending the bloody ground a horrified look.
Damn! Kyle thought, and unconsciously took a step forward and held up his hands, trying to calm down the couple.
It was obviously the wrong thing to do. The man snapped out of his shocked state, and quickly pushed his girlfriend back inside the club, then hurried after her and slammed the door behind them.
No!
Kyle wasn't stupid - he knew that it wouldn't be long before the police cars would arrive, alerted by the couple. And if he, West, and Deirdre should have any chance of surviving, they would have to be far away by then.
"West, get up! We have to leave!" Kyle ordered and hurried to the boy's side. His voice was harsher than he'd intended, but he didn't have a choice - they had to get out of there, and they had to do it fast. And no matter how much it pained Kyle, they would have to leave Prue's body behind - they would already be pressed for time since they had to carry Deirdre to the car.
West looked up with eyes red of tears, and Kyle felt like a bastard for speaking to the boy like that.
"But what about...?." West finally whispered and looked at the body of his lifeless friend, unable to finish the sentence.
"We have to leave!" Kyle repeated. "If we get questioned by the cops, they'll take a DNA test and find out that we're mutants."
West still didn't react, and Kyle could feel the seconds slip away, bringing the police closer and closer.
"If they discover us, they will send us to the camps, do you understand that?!" Kyle snapped. "Do you want that to happen? Do you think Prue would have wanted that to happen??"
Prue's name, combined with the threat of being discovered seemed to register in West's mind, and the boy slowly stood up and took a step away from the body. Another step, and Kyle was mentally begging his teammate to hurry up.
"I'm sorry..." West whispered to the lifeless girl, then spun around, afraid to look back.
He helped Kyle carry the still-unconscious Deirdre into the car, then quickly got into the backseat. He'd barely closed the door before Kyle started the car and sped away from the diner. They drove around a corner, obviously in the nick of time. The flashing light of a police car was reflected in the windows across the street, then intensified as another car joined it. West closed his eyes and leaned back in the seat. He'd left Prue behind; left her alone to face whatever fate awaited her in the hands of the police. They should have brought her along - she was a friend, and you didn't leave friends behind.
He sighed, trying to ignore the nagging feeling of guilt.
I'm sorry, Prue, he whispered in his mind, irrationally hoping that she would somehow find a way to contact him, to tell him that everything would be okay.
But the only reply he got was an accusing silence.
* * *
