Hello everyone, this one's a dosie!
Special thanks to cathinda1!
Chapter 9 She knows
After Clarice made that portal to help with Harry and Sonia to safety they head back to HQ. With some help they get Harry placed on his back in a table Sage had told Sonia to go and get some more towels and meds. Clarice stayed in the vault holding a towel to Harry's wound. He groans. Come on, Caitlin please hurry back. Clarice then takes notice to all the new refugees that had just arrived, but that's not her focus right now, helping Harry is.
Several miles away from HQ...
Once Caitlin pulled into the old lot and the car stopped everyone piled out. John and Lorna headed towards the new cars, with Marcos not far behind them.
"These cars aren't traceable, right?" Marcos asks while John and Lorna pull the sheets off the cars.
"New plates, no record. They're good." John says then walks over to them. While Lorna pulls on her jacket. "We got to talk. When we were out there, when we lost our powers-"
"Yeah, what happened? What did they have?" Marcos asks cutting him off.
"It was Pulse. He was there with Sentinel Services." John says.
"What?" Lorna says.
Marcos shakes his head. "That's impossible. He died."
"Marcos, I saw him. He's alive." John says.
"No, he hated Sentinel Services. He protected all his people in Macon." Marcos tries to reassure.
John rolls his eyes. "They raided that station."
Marcos shakes his head again. "No. No, he'd never work for them. God, if they can turn Pulse, then they can-" He gets cut off by John who closes his fist and listens.
"Sentinel Services drone coming in. We got to move, now." John says looking at the clouds.
"It'll see us soon. I'll draw it off, try to take it down." Marcos says.
"Okay, I'm coming." Lorna says.
Marcos shakes his head. "You just got out of prison, Lorna."
Arms crosses she says. "You, go. I go." Then she opens his door with her power.
Marcos smirks. "We'll meet you at headquarters. Go."
John nods and gets in the driver's seat of his car with the Struckers in the backseat he hits the gas and takes off towards HQ. It's not a long drive and the Struckers stay quiet and John's happy that it's not an awkward ride back. Putting the car in park they walk inside and John sees how overcrowded it is. He sees Shatter walking to some new refugees with blankets.
"Shatter! Hey. What are all these people doing here? What's going on?" John asks when he comes down the first flight of stairs.
"More like what isn't going on. You need to talk to Sage." Shatter says before he goes back to work. John heads down the last flight of stairs and straight to Sage.
"How long has it been like this?" John asks. "A while. Soon as you hit that convoy, Sentinel Services hit back." Sage says. "How hard?" John asks. "Raided every place there were even suspected mutant sympathizers. With no warrants. They are out for blood." Sage says. "We got our hands full. And we can't move anyone, not with this kind of heat." John says looking at the injured man getting his arm wrapped. "I'm manning the scanners, trying to keep our people off the grid." Sage says looking back at the monitors. "We need to keep listening. If anything comes up on the radio, we have to know about it." John says.
Not long before they hear an argument. "What do you think you're doing here?" Fade says.
"Let's talk about this." Reed says.
"We ain't got nothing to talk about!" Fade says then shoves Reed against the wall.
"What's going on? Stop it!" Caitlin says as the two men fight Fade disappears and John catches his fist before it collides with Reed's face.
"That's enough! What are you doing?" John asks.
"How about protecting us?" Fade answers back. John looks at him for clarification. "Just so y'all know, last time I saw this son of a bitch, he was working for Sentinel Services." Everyone starts chattering/.
John holds his hands out to calm them. "Every, just calm down."
"Calm down? This dude's job was locking up people like us." Fade yells.
"Just listen. My dad prosecuted mutants, okay? He did. When he found out about us, he stood up to Sentinel Services." Lauren says addressing the crowd.
"Yeah. By wearing a tracker into my bar." Fade says.
"Hey, back off my dad." Andy says. Reed shakes his head at him.
"I was doing what I had to do to get back to my family." Reed tries to reason.
"'And I'm sorry.' That-That's it, right?" Fade says sarcasticly.
"All right. Hey, just hear him out!" John says.
Trader groans from the vault. Everyone forgets this for a second and looks at the injured mutant.
"Okay, stop. There are injured people here. Why are we attacking each other?" Caitlin asks.
"You go. You help them. Take Andy and Lauren with you. I- I'll work this out." Reed says placing his hand on his wife's shoulder.
"But, he's saying that-" Caitlin is cut off.
"Caitlin, I need you in here now!" Clarice yells from inside the vault.
"What he's saying is true." Reed confesses.
Caitlin's eyes widen. "What?" Trader groans again.
"You go. I can handle this. Let's work this out." She leaves taking the kids with her.
"What happened?" Caitlin asks Clarice once she and the kids are in the vault.
"He was shot. I don't know, it won't stop bleeding." She moves out of the way so that Caitlin can take a look at the wound.
"Hi. It's Harry, right? Harry, I need you to listen to me. I'm gonna take a look at your wound."
"It hurts." Harry says with another groan.
"I know. I need you to be strong for me. I need clean gauze. Towels will work, too. And painkillers. Dilaudid, fentanyl, even codeine, anything you can find." Caitlin says to Clarice.
Nodding she runs out of the vault moving through the crowd to find Sonia grabbing some more towels.
"Hey, there you are. Listen, some of us been talking. About that lawyer who just came in." Shatter says leaning against the door.
"What about him?" Sonia asks.
"Might need you to do your thing. Now, if folks decide that he's not welcome, you're gonna have to make him forget this place and everyone in it." Shatter says.
Clarice looks up from her task suddenly curious about this.
"Yeah. I mean, if-if that's what it comes to. If Johnny says it's okay." Sonia says not looking at Clarice.
"Well, it might be that we need to do it even if he doesn't." Shatter says. Sonia nods and he leaves.
"What was he, uh, talking about? Was he asking you to, what, erase memories?" Clarice asks.
"Uh, I manipulate people's memories. Sometimes we just use it for security purposes." Sonia says not making eye contact.
"Really? I just thought you were able-" Clarice gets cut off.
"You know, we should really get back." Sonia says taking what she has and quickly leaves the room.
Clarice looks out the glass to see John talking to Reed and Fade. Then that memory of her and John comes flowing back to her. So, Sonia messed with my head, and that explains why I want John back so much. Tossing the last thing she needed into her bucket she storms out of the room and back to where Caitlin and Harry are. Handing over the supplies she leaves to go find Zingo she really needs to get away right now.
"How can we even think about trusting him after what he did?" Fade asks. John rubs his temples. "My own children are mutants. Do you really think I'd betray the one place that's protecting them?" Reed fires back. "You already tried once." Fade says crossing his arms. "I am simply asking you to-" Reed tries yet again, to explain. "No! You can't ask me a damn thing." Fade says glaring at the other man.
"Let him talk. We're not going to get anywhere if you don't-" His comment is cut off by Sage.
Leaving the two men he follows her back to the monitors she tells him about the chatter about the manhunt and then it just stops. While he and Sage listen in. Reed comes in offering his input on the situation. He asks about a map and shows them that Sentinel Services is working a grid looking for them. With Reed's help they come up with a simple plan to take the heat off of Marcos and Lorna. It was a bit difficult to get Fade to help, but by John's command he did like he was told. Ten minutes later Reed and Fade head out. John and Sage listen as their radio goes off about a suspect being spotted on Elm.
"It's working. They're redirecting their search south. We're in the clear." Sage says. John shakes his head. "But he's not. Text his burner. Tell him to get out of there." Nodding Sage pulls out her burner and texts Reed. Fade did not pick up Reed in the right place. He did have him go around the corner which wasn't necessary, but it doesn't matter now they were both heading back to HQ. John left Sage to the rest he went to the vault and saw Harry stitched up and doing better from what Caitlin had told him. He nods leaving the room to go and find Clarice, only to find out that she and Sonia had gone to go help Marcos and Lorna. Shaking his head, he goes to his office and sorts out some bills.
Meanwhile at an abandoned warehouse...
Clarice and Sonia had just made it to the location where Marcos and Lorna were. Clarice walks over to Marcos who's looking out the window as Sentinel Services agents just arrived. They were cut off from the car, but they had Clarice.
"It looks like they're getting ready to move in. Can you get us out of here if things escalate?" Marcos asks. "Maybe." Clarice says. "Maybe?" Marcos turns to face her. "Dude, FYI, it's a bit more taxing tearing holes into space than it is turning your hands into flashlights." Clarice says her arms crossed. "Point taken." Marcos nods. Turning back to Lorna and Sonia.
"He knows what they did to Pulse. He doesn't want to share." Lorna says.
"Okay, I'll see what I can find out." Sonia says as she kneels on the ground next to Jace. "I'm warning you, whatever you're planning on doing, this is assault on a federal officer." Jace says trying to pull away, but couldn't. "Hmm. Don't worry, handsome. You won't feel a thing." Sonia says giving him a sly smile and putting her hand on his cheek.
Clarice watched curious about how Sonia's powers worked. She watched as Sonia blew her pink smoke in Jace's face his eyes closed for a second then shoot open. Clarice crosses her arms glaring at Dreamer. Son of a bitch.
"Oh, hey. Hey, they're moving. Now, we are running out of time." Marcos says moving away from the window. "Then I'll buy us some more." Lorna says as she moves to the plie of old rusted metal. Using her Magnetokinesis she lifts them up and over her head and out the highest windows in the building they land in one of the Sentinel Service vans. The officers back off for a few minutes before they fire something into the building. "Watch out! Tear gas!" Marcos yells. They are all coughing. "Are you okay?" Marcos asks. Lorna nods. "Yeah, yeah I'm good."
"Is she done?" Clarice asks motioning to Sonia.
"Sonia, Sonia come on!" Lorna says grabbing her best friend and pulling her up.
Clarice turns the corner and starts to open a portal. "Hurry! This way!"
"Sonia! No, come on! It's too late! Come on! Come on!" Lorna says still struggling with Sonia. "Wait! Lorna! I can't leave him like this!" Sonia says but gets up just as Clarice has the portal big enough for them to get through. They are back at HQ and Sonia quickly leaves them to go and sketch what it was she saw in Jace's head. And 45 minutes later she calls everyone the monitor room.
They discuss the sketches and John points out the mark that he saw on Pulse's arm. Reed had known about the Federal Building in Baton Rouge, saying that several of his cases ended up being there. It wasn't much to go on, but it was enough for now. They knew they had to get in that Federal Building and get some answers. They dismissed and went to go eat if they hadn't already.
Clarice found Sonia on the second floor sitting on an old couch sketching some more. "Hey. I need to talk to you. Did you mess with my head?" Clarice asks. "What do you mean?" Sonia asks putting down her pencil. "I was watching you with the Sentinel Services guy. And then I remembered something. Last week, the two of us started to have a conversation, and now that conversation's just gone. And now I can't go ten minutes without this memory of John coming back to me. I'm asking you straight up, did you mess with my head?" Clarice askes again. "You couldn't use your abilities. Johnny was in trouble, and if you were gonna help, you-you needed a connection to him." Sonia says standing up. "You had no right. Were you ever gonna tell me?" Clarice asks. "Look, I know that you're angry, but you have to understand, people's lives were at stake." Sonia says like that supposed to help. Angry? No, I'm livid.
"I don't have to understand anything. What you do is wrong. You decided that you needed to fix me, and now I get to live with the memory of loving my old boyfriend. Someone who doesn't love me." Clarice says jade eyes glaring. "I can take it away if you want. I can remove the memory-" Sonia is cut off. "Just stay away from me." Clarice says then storms away heading downstairs and to her space. Having no idea that John had heard the whole confrontation, but had nothing to say. Knowing that had he intervened that it would just make matters worse.
John had heard Sonia crying after Clarice had left, but he was not going to go up there and comfort her when she knew exactly what she was doing. Sighing he laid down on his bed thinking about how thinking would have turned out if John had just been honest with Clarice from the beginning.
How about that finale? I won't spoil if you haven't seen it yet, but if you did PM me and tell me what you thought about it as a whole and about ThunderBlink. Please also let me know what you thought about this chapter and if you haven't favorite and follow! I do love feedback. Until next time...