A short chapter, I know. Not to worry...the next one will make up for it. I just didn't know how to break it up and making this scene it's own chapter just made the most sense.
Canuckle - thanks for the "review" and the advice. Now...stop reading this and get back to writing.
Greer grinned as she picked up speed.
"Faster!" her legs told her and she complied, darting through the trees effortlessly while everything became a blur around her.
"Faster!" and she pushed her muscles to their limits, going as far as to drop on all fours. Greer noticed that the blurring world around her suddenly came into sharper focus. It hadn't even been a conscious decision, Greer just thrilled at seeing nature itself bend at her will, the comforting wind that whipped against her, the dirt that she kicked up, the rats, insects and other unidentified animals that scampered out of her way in fear as she came through... She grinned with triumph only to snarl in anger and surprise as her foot got caught on a branch, sending her falling and tumbling clumsily into a lake.
"Damn it..." she snarled as she picked herself up only to catch her reflection in the water. Her hair was a mess, dirt caked her fur and she had torn her uniform and in several places...She looked, wild, vicious, feral... and SHE HATED IT, turning around, she took in the trail of destruction she had left behind, torn up dirt, hacked trees... God... She was acting so much... So much like an animal...
"No..." Greer thought helplessly...
Apex was standing on a strong branch in a pine tree a few hundred yards from the Mansion. It provided an ample view of both the surrounding forest, the bordering lake and kept the Mansion in sight. He had found this spot recently and sought it out whenever the Mansion became too...overbearing. Apex preferred the silence of the forest.
Looking back at the Mansion, Apex's thoughts turned surly as he replayed his argument with Greer.
'She doesn't understand. No one leaves Weapon X the same...She keeps pretending nothing happened but there's something there. Something she's not facing.' And the fact that somehow even weeks later she was still showing signs of physical distress...he didn't understand it, but it did not bode well.
Apex's ears swiveled as the silence was interrupted by something crashing through the forest. Animals everywhere began scurrying for cover. Dropping to a crouch, he scanned the forest and saw that whatever was coming, it was coming from the direction of the Mansion.
Apex tensed, numerous possible scenarios of who may have been making a hasty retreat from the Mansion. But when the target came into view, he was surprised at what he saw: it was Greer.
'I never knew that Greer came to the forest as well...' Outside of the times she had come looking for him, Greer seemed to detest the forest...or any outdoors really. He had heard Jean refer to her as a "house cat" but Greer had not seemed amused at the comment.
He considered calling out until he saw Greer drop to all fours. As she did, her movements shifted from that of a human to those that only a predator could ever hope to match. She moved with unparalleled grace, confidence and lethality...until she lost her focus and tripped over an exposed root.
Apex winced at the sound of Greer now tumbling head over heels through the brush until she came to rest in the shallows of the large lake. While it was cold for October, the lake had yet to freeze over.
Apex dropped to the forest floor to check on Greer but came up short, still in the cover of the trees, when he heard her soft cries.
...
"No please no..." turning away from her trail of destruction and with a wail, Greer struck at her reflection before sinking down on her knees. Silent sobs raking through her body...She was so... confused... So terribly terribly confused... and so alone...These past few days had really just proven to her how... different she was from everyone... That she was a freak among freaks... That she belonged nowhere.
The X men had taught her that she was still human...Normal...Capable of living the life she had always wanted. But time and again, the world slapped her back to reality as if it wanted her to know how naive she was. And it was not only the world that seemed to mock her, sometimes even the X-Men treated her like she was some sort of animal. It wasn't intentional, Greer knew that, but it was there...and she no longer knew where the line stood between teasing and downright insulting...
Colton on the other hand told her to forget her human side...To embrace the beast within and to find some sort of equilibrium between the two... and she HAD tried...SHE HAD TRIED HER BEST. But every time she got comfortable with it... it scared her terribly. What happened at Weapon X...What they made her do to Jamie and Kimura showed her exactly what she could become if she became too comfortable with her animal nature...and those memories never failed to send chills down her spine.
She could never...For as long as she lived, ever forgive herself for what she did in Weapon X. And the memory of the satisfaction and the delightful thrill she felt when she hunted her prey was something Greer could never and would never accept about herself. She refused.
And now to top it all off...she was suspended from the X-Men.
"Greer..." Greer turned slightly to see Apex watching her.
"I don't need to hear it Colton." Greer kept her position on her knees and lowered her head so that her hair covered her face.
"Greer what happened?" Apex took a step closer as if to approach.
"Not now Colton." The last thing she wanted was Colton reminding her how...damaged she was.
"Tell me." She had refused to reveal to him what had been bothering her before. But now something had happened. She wasn't going to keep him in the dark. He heard her scoff at his request.
"You were right...OK? You were right. Now can you just - just give me some space." Greer could feel the tears slowly dropping down her face. She didn't want anyone seeing her like this. Especially Colton...she heard him take another step towards her.
"I said leave me alone!" Greer roared and shut her eyes to her bestial reflection, head still bowed and her hands clenched around the muddy water as a flock of birds fled from the surrounding trees.
A tense, silent moment passed as Greer's breathing was the only thing making a sound as the forest had fallen quiet. Even during her time at the Facility, Apex couldn't recall Greer ever looking so distressed...so worn. But if she thought she was the only one to know what it was like to be an outsider, she was wrong.
"You're not alone Greer. Never." Greer jerked her head up but by the time she looked, Colton was already gone.
'Great...really great Greer. Push away the one person you can talk to. Now I'll need to fix that too.'
Taking a shaky breath and sinking deeper into the lake, she allowed the cold-water to seep into her fur and wash away all her frustrations and most importantly... wash away all her fear.
It was a good half an hour of this before she felt like herself again. Begrudgingly, Greer pulled herself out of the water and slowly made her way back to the Mansion.
...
Jean ran her hand through her hair nervously as she made her way back to her room. She had looked everywhere for Greer...EVERYWHERE...Heck, she had even asked Colton if he had seen Greer...Since they spent so much time together...
"Colton! Colton have you seen Greer?" Colton had just came through the sliding door into the kitchen from outside when Jean had spotted him. Jean waited impatiently as she saw that he was carefully considering his answer.
"Colton, I'm just looking for Greer, no need to hide her from me. Either you've seen her or you haven't." Jean said slightly annoyed.
"No...No I haven't seen her." Jean rolled her eyes and turned to continue her search.
"Jean wait." Jean turned back to see Colton staring out at the forest and making a point of avoiding looking directly at her. If Jean didn't know any better, she could have sworn he was trying to hide something from her. It was always tough to read him.
"What is it Colton?" Jean had a slightly softer tone now. Colton turned away from the forest but Jean still felt he wasn't looking at her.
"You're looking for Greer - did something happen?" Apex saw the concern etched on Jean's face as she replayed what had happened in Greer's Danger Room session. That she had been suspended from the X-Men.
"And I've been trying to find her since. She was so upset and ran off and now I just need to find her."
"Where does she usually go when she's upset?" Colton asked seriously.
"I already checked the gym, the danger room, with Logan, the library...I dunno where else to look really."
"The forest?" Colton asked neutrally. Jean now gave Colton a suspicious look as he again turned to look outside.
"The forest? I mean she's never gone out to the forest before. Not unless she had to. Why? Did you see Greer out there?" Jean now turned to look at the forest as well, already plotting the best paths to check.
"No. I didn't see Greer out there." Jean noted the odd tone when Colton spoke, but when she had turned to ask him what he had meant, he had already started down the hall. Jean considered Colton as he left, for the first time considering if perhaps she was no longer alone in the struggle of helping Greer recover from her time at Weapon X.
Apex however had heard enough.
He went to check the tapes for himself to see if Tigra had followed Greer home.
...
Greer didn't know what hit her...She had heard the door swing open and was ready to apologize to Jeanonly to grunt when she was knocked over.
"Jean..." Greer wheezed as she felt her rib cage squeeze.
"You're back! God, I was so worried about you..." the red head claimed as she wrapped Greer in a tighter hug.
"I'm sorry..." the both of them confessed in unison as they broke apart before raising eyebrows at each other. An awkward silence hung in the air before Greer flattened her ears and gave Jean a guilty smile.
"I'm sorry I blew up at you...God...and hissed at you..."
"No! No that was me. You need your space and I should have respected that...Look Greer, I just want you to be happy. It bothers me when you're not." she concluded before putting a caring hand on Greer's furred shoulder.
"Thanks." Greer said with a soft smile. Jean wasn't buying it, but didn't want to push too much. She hadn't seen Greer this fragile since her first few days in the Mansion.
"You know I'm always here for you Greer. I know the last few weeks have been... difficult for you... After the whole Weapon X incident..." Greer whipped around at Jean's words.
"What are you talking about?" she whispered harshly, fear suddenly reflected in her eyes. Jean bit her lip. Greer thought she had been so careful...
"I haven't been reading your mind or anything! I swear! Its just that...I know you've had some trouble sleeping." In truth, 'trouble' was a vast understatement. Jean had awoken the first night that Greer had been back to Greer moaning in her sleep...But things were getting worse. Jean shook her head to try and forget and instead focus back on her very awake and hurting friend.
Another awkward silence hung in the air, but Greer saw the truth reflected in Jean's eyes. Greer had trouble recalling exactly what had been happening beyond her nightmares but from the look on Jean's face she knew it was bad. Greer bit her lip and lowered her head on her furred knees, unable to meet Jean's gaze any longer. But Greer needed to know the truth...
"Jean..." Greer whispered hesitantly.
"Yeah?"
"Are you...afraid of me?"
The red head paused at the question, "God just say no you idiot..." Jean thought angrily at herself but as much she wanted to say no...She really did... but... truth be told, Greer did scare her... A lot...
She remembered three years ago, back when they were still in high school, how Greer's feral instincts had kicked in and how vicious and uncontrollable she was when she attacked Blob, Kurt, Evan and even Jean herself. The moment Jean had locked eyes with Greer as she had attempted to rip her throat out... Jean couldn't see any trace of her best friend within those blood red eyes...
This happened again back at the Weapon X base. When she had found Greer with missing portions of tissue, covered in blood, and looking at her with those chilling red eyes as if Jean was some prey Greer was stalking . Moments like those really made Jean wonder how much of her best friend could stay in control before her programming completely kicked in.
Greer waited for an answer but as an acrid smell filled her nostrils, she realized the truth...surprised and hurt, Greer looked up at Jean who drew back slightly from the sudden movement. Racked with guilt, Jean wrapped Greer in another hug.
"I'm so sorry Greer. I should never have let you go find Weapon X alone..." she whispered, guilt welling up in her chest as she rubbed soothing circles on her friend's furred back as they started to tremble.
"I don't know what they did to you but I want you to know this Greer. They are the REAL monsters...Not you or Colton or anyone else..." she said firmly as they broke apart.
Greer sniffled a little, before nodding slowly, still a little shaken that her best friend was... afraid of her...but the sincerity of Jean's voice made her realize Jean still cared deeply for her...she was after all her first friend who happened to have saved her from bleeding to death in an alley...Pushing her misery aside, Greer gave the red head a small reassuring smile.
"Thanks..." she said shakily. This time Jean knew Greer was telling the truth.