Chapter Twenty-Eight: Icy Ilusions
Killer Frost opened her eyes and found herself back in the station, facing off against a short girl with long straight black hair. Green eyes glowed against the shadow-filled station.
Jules flinched, slightly off balance. Killer Frost had somehow broken free of her mental grip. That wasn't supposed to happen. Layla wouldn't be happy.
"How did you do that?" Jules projected into the woman's mind, hoping to keep her off balance and find out where she went wrong. If she discovered how Frost had broken free, she could stop it from happening again.
"Get out of my head!" Frost snarled aloud, eyes glowing ice blue. Flicking her wrists, two icicles appeared in her hands. She raised them, but suddenly it was like she was seeing double. Two identical girls stood where there had previously been only one. Frost shook her head, trying to clear her vision, but it didn't work. And now there were three.
"You can't do that! I don't want to hurt you, just incapacitate you," Illusionist projected again, not speaking aloud so as not to give herself away. The three mirror images moved in unison, backing away from Frost.
"Get. Out. Of my HEAD!" Frost shouted, spraying shards of ice in a deadly arc, catching every image. Most shattered harmlessly on the marble floor, but one struck true, the jagged piece embedding in arm of the real Juliet. She let out an involuntary yelp of pain, and her duplicates flickered and disappeared.
Clutching her wound, the girl looked up, eyes flashing like sodium fire. And out of the corner of her eye, Frost saw her hands begin to turn a stony shade of grey. It spread quickly, and everywhere it spread, it left her paralysed and numb. She went to take a step forward, but she couldn't move.
"How are you doing this?" She hissed angrily, but there was a rising panic in the woman's eyes.
Juliet just smiled, then winced, rubbing at her temples. Using her powers like this was taking a toll. But that was okay. Layla needed her to take care of it, and she was. And besides, it was nice to finally get to use her powers for something useful.
As the numbness spread up her neck, Killer Frost struggled, straining her muscles to move even an inch. But it was no use, and the strangely familiar second voice was absent.
That got Juliet thinking. Perhaps that was how Frost had broken free before? She decided to do some digging.
It didn't take long. Behind a mental barrier was an entirely different persona. Caitlin. A hint of apprehension echoed in the depths of her mind, but Jules ignored it.
"This isn't real!" It was shouting at Frost, though Frost didn't seem to be able to hear her yet.
How inconvenient to have your consciousness split in two, Juliet considered, fascinated, then shook her head, dislodging the train of thought. No, remember, you have a job to do.
"Shush," Juliet projected at Caitlin, "I need you to stop getting in our way."
It didn't seem to do much. The Caitlin side of the brain kept shouting at the Frost side.
"She's manipulating your perception. You're not really turning to stone!" Caitlin told her other half, taking advantage of Juliet's meddling to reach her alter ego through her subconscious, bypassing the conscious barrier which usually divided her and Frost.
Frost fought the illusion, closing her eyes and trying to ignore the numbness which was travelling up her body. Her hand twitched.
Fudge, Juliet frowned, closing her own eyes and reaching out, feeling for the weak mental barrier between Frost and Caitlin. She imagined building her own mental wall, which she usually used to keep out unwanted thoughts, but instead of building it around her own mind, she built it between Frost and Caitlin. Red city bricks filled the space, and Caitlin's protests became muffled.
Juliet smiled and opened her eyes to a frozen Frost, paralysed by her own perceptions. Then a stab of pain sliced through her brain, and Juliet staggered, black spots dancing over her vision.
Deep breaths, deep breaths, she told herself, struggling to maintain both her own mental barriers, the constraints she'd placed on Frost, and the wall she'd built. It was almost too much. She could feel the thoughts of everyone in the building pressing down on her. Indecipherable whispering filling the space, dark and pervasive. It took everything she had not to let everything go.
Deep breaths, deep breaths. You don't have to hold it forever, just until Layla gets back. She'll know what to do.
Something about that thought seemed off, but Juliet was too stretched to examine the feeling too closely. She had a splitting headache, her arm ached, and she was having trouble even staying upright. She was so distracted that she didn't notice someone else had entered the room until they were almost on top of her.
Cara cautiously stepped into the Central City Police Station. The lights were off, and shadows stretched up the walls, creating deep pockets of darkness in the corners. In the centre of the marble floor stood Killer Frost, a snarl painted across her features. At first, nothing seemed to be amiss, but after a few seconds, Cara realised that Frost hadn't moved a muscle in that time, she hadn't even reacted to Cara's presence. She just stood there, still as a statue.
Opposite her, leaning on her knees and breathing heavily, was Juliet. Cara paused, watching for a moment before approaching. Juliet didn't look like she was attacking anyone. Perhaps she had it wrong?
"Jay?"
Juliet's head snapped up, and her eyes were burning sickly green. They bored into Cara like lasers.
"Cara. What are you doing here?" Juliet seemed to steady herself, standing up and turning to face her foster sister.
"I-" Cara hesitated, "I thought you might be in trouble, so I came to check. What's wrong with Caitlin? Uh, I mean Frost." She still wasn't used to the fact that Juliet's superhero friend was Killer Frost. And that Caitlin was her alter ego.
"I'm fine." Said Juliet, but even in the shadow-filled station she looked pale, "You should leave. We haven't finished the job, and I don't want you here when Layla comes back. I know you don't like her."
"Which job?" Cara asked. Juliet had ignored her question about Caitlin. Damn. This was not looking good.
"I knew I shouldn't have told you about it," Juliet said, sighing. "Layla is right, metas need to send a message that they can't treat us like monsters without consequences. We have as much right as anyone else to live without discrimination. If this is what it takes, then it's worth it."
"Juliet," Cara said, choosing her words carefully, "Caitlin is your friend. Look at her! Is losing her worth all this?"
"I-," Juliet looked at Frost, then tore her gaze away, "It's important. What we're doing is important. Caitlin got in the way. Besides, I didn't hurt her."
Cara moved closer slowly, taking courage from the uncertainty which flickered across her sister's face.
"Juliet, I want you to think about what you're doing. Not so long ago you told me you didn't want to hurt anyone. You told me you didn't even want your powers!"
Juliet frowned, and her fingers began to twist in the fabric of her hoodie, the way she did when she was worried. Cara had noticed she'd been doing that a lot lately, and no wonder.
"I-," Juliet said, then winced, rubbing her forehead. Something glistened in the lamplight which filtered in from the street. An icicle protruded from Juliet's arm, jagged and bloodstained.
Cara sucked in a breath, flashing back to another night not too long ago. Juliet had been on the floor, blood gushing from the bullet-hole in her thigh. Cara still occasionally had nightmares about that night. Inwardly, she cursed Layla and her awful powers.
"Is that – are you okay?" She asked, darting forward and reaching for the wound.
Juliet reacted slowly, after a few seconds of confusion, she looked down at her arm.
"Oh. That." Juliet frowned again, not quite sure what to do about it. "I forgot about that. It doesn't hurt as much as it did before."
Cara reached out, gently brushing the skin around the protrusion. It was ice cold.
"If you take this out, it'll bleed more, but if you don't…well, I think you might get frostbite?" Cara muttered, examining the wound. She came to a decision. "Alright, I'm going to take it out."
Cara began to rip around the bottom of her t-shirt, trying to create some makeshift bandages.
"Jay, I think you should sit down," she said, gently tugging her sister downwards. Juliet sunk down gratefully, seemingly relieved. "Okay, hold these-," Cara shoved the bandaged into her lap, "- I'm going to pull out the icicle in three, two, one-" Cara wrapped her hands in what was left of her shirt and tugged on the icicle sticking out of Juliet's arm. At first gently, then firmly, until it finally released, the bloody tip emerging with a gross sucking-pop. Juliet cried out in surprise and pain, and it echoed loudly in the marble foyer.
"Shush," Cara murmured, dropping the ice and immediately beginning to bandage the wound. "It's okay, you're okay." I'm going to kill Layla this time, I really am, she was thinking to herself all the while, rage boiling beneath the surface.
Something wet dripped onto her hands as they worked. She looked up to see Juliet with tears running down her face for the second time that night.
"I'm sorry, I think I -," confusion and misery warred across her younger sister's face, and Cara almost sighed with relief. Thank goodness, she's finally snapped out of it. "- I wasn't suppose to do this – those police officers I made them, I didn't want to but – and Killer Frost -," Juliet let out a sob, head whipping around to take in the frozen woman, "-oh no Caitlin!"
At that moment, footsteps tapped across the floor, and Cara looked up to see Layla and Dee making their way towards them.
I looked up, and, seeing Layla, I buried my face back down. I was afraid to look at her. I couldn't believe I'd thought I could just walk in and set them up. The moment I'd shown any hesitation she turned her golden wolf eyes on me and I was hers. I choked on another sob at the memory. She'd used me to make those officers scream. I could still hear the sound echoing in my ears.
Beside me, I felt Cara get to her feet.
"Layla. You broke your promise." She said simply, but I could hear the simmering rage beneath those words.
"My powers are a part of who I am," Layla's confident tones carried across the hall, rich and full of purpose, tugging at my mind to follow and obey. I tried to bury myself deeper into my hoodie. "I couldn't have given them up any more than the sky could've given up being blue."
Cara snorted. "You mean that you can't give up being in control. You know, even before you got your powers, that was a problem for you, but after? You can't control other people, Layla."
"Oh, but I can," I could hear the delight in Layla's voice, "But you should know that better than anyone."
My head shot up, trying to catch Cara's reaction above me. But the shadows were thick and I was at the wrong angle to perceive anything. I rubbed at my pounding head. Come on, Juliet, you can stand. On the bright side, the black spots weren't so obvious in the dark, so I could pretend to ignore them. I dragged myself to my feet, suppressing a groan when I went to lean on my bad arm.
"I was a fool to think you meant it when you said you were sorry," Cara's voice was full of bitterness, "I should've just reported you in the first place."
"I did mean it. You were my friend. You were supposed to support me!" Layla said, voice rising as she took a few steps forward.
"Friends don't manipulate each other or force them to do things they didn't want to do!" Cara said with fire in her eyes and clenching her hands into white-knuckled fists.
"Well, it turned out for the best, didn't it? Neither of us were there when Jules here blasted the whole school. Isn't that right, Jules?" Layla's voice cooled like molten metal, and, at the sound of my name, I couldn't help but look up. Right into those wolf-like eyes, eager and hungry.
I felt like a rabbit, caught in the hunter's sight, frozen with fear. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, I couldn't think.
"Hmmm," she hummed, low and husky like a wolf growl. "No, you'll be too much effort now you've broken free." Abruptly, she turned her gaze away, and I was mercifully released. I sagged.
"…But you'll do just as well," Layla told someone, and I looked up to see her eyes focus on someone beside me. Cara, I realised belatedly.
Author's Note:
Yes! It's a me again! Being more frequent! So yeah, I reread this entire thing just to make sure I wasn't going off the rails completely, and it really helped! Gotta get my character motivations straight and all that. It's good advice for long term projects which haven't been worked on in a while I guess - rereading what you've already done helps for motivation (you sometimes remember why you wanted to tell the story in the first place), and helps you remember what you wanted to do. I'm actually getting excited about finishing this, which is cool. I started pt 1 in 2019, so it's totally surreal to be finishing pt 2 so many years later.
Anyway, getting close to the climax! Let me know what you think - theories, thoughts, reactions, anything! I adore your reviews, they're honestly so good at keeping me accountable and working on this - so thank you so so so SO much for helping me finish this. I couldn't do it without you!
Happy holidays! May your days be merry and bright, shone upon by a star of light, and angel chorus fill your ears, as friends and family gather near.
BellatrixTheStar