I've been planning these a while, I had it pointed out to me that I never really went into Penelope, either as a character or really her relationship with Jackie, so I'm uploading this mini series to try and make up for that. Naturally these are going to be from Penelope's POV and will go a little more into her backstory and how the Descendants of Pitch work.
Penelope followed Samuel from the police station, still shaken from what had happened. She hadn't expected her plan fail quite so spectacularly. She rubbed her arm, a nervous habit and a tic that someone as socially inept as Jackie wouldn't have picked up on, while looking at the older and taller Descendant's back.
She remembered some things about Descendants, remembered shouts through the old front door as her mother refused to let them in. One night when one of them managed to get into her bedroom, a scared little girl being defended by a large wolfhound.
She had only been half listening to the stranger hidden in the shadows, but the information had been retained. That's why she'd sought out HOG and the Descendants of Lupine, in that order, and why she'd been so confused when they'd turned her away so violently.
"So, what do you know?" Samuel had come to a stop on the edge of the town.
"Erm, that we are Descended from Pitch Black, the Boogeyman, we exist in case he requires our services, but otherwise we live apart from weak mortals." Penelope said somewhat robotically, information remembered from all those years ago.
"Correct." Samuel bobbed his blonde head. "Do you know how to shadow travel?"
"Yeah, but, where are we going?"
"I can't say yet." said Samuel. "Follow me."
He disappeared into the shadows and Penelope quickly followed, locking onto his presence and following it.
The two appeared in a cave, who knew where. Their arrival had clearly been planned as there was a ring of Descendants around the edge of the cave. No Descendant looked quite the same, there were in fact few physical similarities. Some were short, others tall, thin, bulky, black hair, blonde hair, brown hair, red hair. It was all here, however black hair was clearly dominant.
In the centre was a pillar of rock, a stalagmite, that stood at around five foot high. Even in the gloom, Penelope could see dried brown and copper red streams flowing down it.
She swallowed, not knowing, or really wanting to know what that was for. This whole situation was new, and her instincts, honed from years of living alone, were telling her to leave, there was nothing stopping her, just go through the shadows and travel anywhere. Another continent would be good.
"A Descendant of Pitch does not feel fear." Samuel barked, making Penelope jump. "Fear is an emotion for those inferior to us. We can feed off fear, we have no need for it ourselves."
Penelope didn't respond, but her unease grew.
Samuel approached the stalagmite, and from how everyone else didn't move, it was clear that he was the one in charge here.
"We are not liked, not by HOG at least, we know that much. It can be easy for us to stray, so we make a pact, in this room. We bind ourselves to each other by blood, with our own blood combining with the blood of those who have come before us."
Samuel turned to Penelope, his blue eyes seeming to shine brightly in the gloom. "This appears daunting to many, but everyone else in this room has done this. Will you join us?"
Even now, I have a choice. Penelope could walk away, leave humanity behind as she had done before, it would be so much easier, but the idea also sent waves of pain to hit her chest. The brief interaction and even briefer comradery with Jackie had left her wide open. Suddenly, she couldn't bring herself to be alone anymore.
Jackie's cold and calculated rejection rang through her ears, and seeing her and that boy, smiling together behind her eyelids. Her resolve hardened, and she stepped forward.
"I will." she stated, squaring her shoulders. They were willing to accept her, isn't this what she'd always wanted?
"Very well." Samuel approached and signalled if it was okay for him to take her hand. She obliged and he gripped it at the wrist, moving her forward until her hand hovered over stalagmite.
"You only need to make a scratch and allow some blood to flow. You would then use sand or shadows to cover the wound, whatever your preference."
Penelope tended to use a mix, as shadows were too insubstantial to hold blood in, but sand was itchy and irritable on the injury, but together they stopped the itchy sand.
Penelope lowered her hand onto the stalagmite without any prompting from Samuel, and scratched the fleshy part of her palm. It barely hurt, especially compared to some injuries she'd had in the past, so had no issue watching the red blood drip onto the rock.
Samuel nodded after a minute or so, deeming it to be enough blood and Penelope withdrew her hand, wrapping black sand and shadows around it.
It was done, there was no turning back now.
And Jackie Davies was going to regret turning her down.
Penelope tried not to flinch at the stares as she made her way to her quarters. The whole base was like a hive had been carved out of the rock, with a massive central chamber and bridges spanning the expanse above.
It was just the settling in period, Samuel had told her. Most were at least a little suspicious of an older Descendant coming in, most of them came in about five or so.
You could say many things about the Descendants of Pitch, but you couldn't deny that they were tight knit.
Almost, too tight knit, at least for Penelope's taste.
Groups of Descendants tended to sleep in the same room, and that was weird enough, even stranger that she was sleeping in a bed. She hadn't slept in a bed in years, and the only reason she was doing it now was because she really didn't fancy sleeping on hard, pointy rock.
The people she was sharing with were, okay. They seemed to be drilling in the fear thing, but they were all teenagers, hormones and things were going mad, so not feeling fear was a bit tricky for them.
That's what she assumed, she didn't know much about that part of human anatomy.
"Ah, Catherine, just the person I was hoping to see."
Penelope had to force herself not to freeze as she heard Samuel approach, especially as he insisted on using her birth name from the visits all those years ago. He had an awful habit of changing moods at the drop of a hat, almost like flicking a switch. He could go from happy to murderous in no time at all, and it happened more often than anyone was willing to admit.
"You know someone in HOG, right?" Samuel came around in front of her, grinning, his smile standing out on his peaky face. Most Descendants of Pitch don't see the sunlight for years at a time.
"Yes." Penelope said cautiously. "She won't trust me anymore." If she ever did.
Samuel waved it off. "That doesn't matter. That just means you know where they are, right?"
"Kind of..."
"Excellent." Samuel wrapped an arm over Penelope's shoulders. "Follow me."
Penelope tried to ignore the fear that had decided to poke her in the gut.
Penelope made it to the communal bathrooms before throwing up. That had been horrible. None of what just happened had been deserved, on either side.
They'd started it sure, but Jackie had ended it.
Yes, they'd kidnapped them, but was murder an appropriate response?
No, that wasn't fair. They'd pushed someone that Penelope knew to have unstable powers into a corner. Heck, she'd done that before herself! It hadn't ended great the first time, and now it wasn't ending great again.
Paura was on the warpath. She was a twin, Jackie killed her brother and siblings tended to be very close down here, so she had every reason to be upset. She had been practically frothing at the mouth once they'd gotten back.
And Samuel, oh darkness, Samuel.
He'd never seen him so furious. She'd tried to tell him that attacking the Burgess Branch was a bad idea, but he already seemed to have some baggage with them. She told him that Jackie wasn't in full control.
He hadn't listened, or perhaps that's what he'd wanted, but Penelope had made it worse by trying to help Jackie. Why? She'd done nothing for her!
Guilt. I felt guilty. I didn't stop this, she was hurting. Those were the reasons, despite the little bit of satisfaction she'd felt when she saw Jackie's face, but it hadn't lasted long.
She'd already been chewed out for helping her, and was going to facing Samuel in sparring tomorrow. The Descendants of Pitch didn't punish wrongdoers physically, officially. Sparring with weapons was a way of getting around that.
The bodies came into her mind again and she heaved again, the remains of the contents of her stomach expelling itself.
That had been horrible. Seeing dead animals hadn't prepared her for that, and seeing Pitch, even worse.
This had started to turn very sour.
Orders from above apparently, that was the reason behind this.
How high above Penelope had no idea, as far as she was aware each continent base has the same level of authority, but either way, they were preparing a squad for Scotland with the European Descendants of Pitch.
Penelope didn't like this, this was wrong. HOG as a whole so far has not retaliated, but the people Jackie killed was enough apparently. No diplomacy, just going in for that attack.
Chances were this was a bigger plan, one involving Pitch. Penelope was willing to guess that was where the orders had come from. Pitch didn't care about Descendant diplomacy, and no Descendant was going to disobey, they all knew the cost of that.
So she squared her shoulders and aimed her hands to towards the shadows, sand building up around the fingers in long streams.
So, to clarify slightly, as I imagine it's been a while since most of you read the original Human Order of Guardians, the first part takes place a few hours after Jackie and Penelope have their first fight, early in HOG 1. Second part is just before the part when Jackie gets captured by Blondie/Samuel and meets more Descendants of Pitch, about a few days or a week before. Third part is less than an hour after that. Fourth part is just before the sand appears in the HOG mass meeting in Scotland.
Also, if anyone has any better ideas for a title, that would be great!