GAPS pre-play

[sidestepdestiny]

Ever since I've been told where Simon is I've been going mental waiting for this moment. Everyone together, we've been told. It's our best chance against all the people on plasmids, all the guards and super powered people on the side of KIRIN. Alec, Isabelle and I wanted to formulate our own plan, but we didn't want to endanger everyone else in the facility. And theses people must be powerful if they've been able to cage Simon and Magnus, and snakes knows who else.

Alec and Isabelle have their own runes to help them. I cast There's nothing to see here! on myself, simply because if someone comes after me with fire I'm done for. When the first strike is made, I cast It's show time! to find where Simon's being kept. It'll be faster than me trying to scent him out among all the chaos.

The spell leads me to a large room. It's permeated with the scent of smoke and magic. It smells like a recently dowsed bonfire, so thick I feel ill from it. But worse is Simon, strapped to a table, hooked to tubes and wires. There's a man attending to him, perhaps trying to move him in the midst of the sounds of fighting coming from behind us, and I don't think. I cast, "Hit the floor!" My voice is a roar, and he's knocked backwards into a wall. When I'm sure he's prone, unconscious most like, I rush to Simon.

"I'm here," I tell him, touching his forehead, fighting the bile in the back of my throat and freeing him from the machines they've got him hooked up to.

Comments

[worst_greatest_one]

I hate this room.

I hate that I can scarcely remember why, but each time they wheel me into it, I remember. Something awful happens here, something that makes me hurt all over, and even though I wake up each time far away, they just keep bringing me back.

The first thing I'm aware of are my limbs twitching, seizing up in cramps, but I'm too exhausted to even do that for long. I've woken up a dozen times like this, but already I can tell that something's different. I'm still on the gurney, and Penny's back again.

They never let her in here with me.

I open my eyes, trying to see her in the glare of the lights. "Can I stop?" I ask, or try to. My voice is gone and my lips feel wrong, too thick and rubbery. "S'not working, Penn."

[sidestepdestiny]

Relief washes over me that Simon is conscious. I'd been holding it back, but it hits me now, that a part of me was scared I'd find him comatose, or...worse. But he's whole and speaking. He's pale, hoarse, but he's alive.

"Shh, darling, you can stop," I tell him, not sure what he's asking to stop doing, but I don't want him to be trying to do anything but leave here with me. It's clear by the smell of the place that he's been worked up, and it's amazing the building is even still standing.

Penny? I pause where I've been unbuckling his right arm to glance around. Is there a chance she's shown up and ended up here? But no one's in the room. "It's me, Simon. It's Baz."

[worst_greatest_one]

"Not Penny?" I murmur, trying to sit up, but as usual the restraints catch at me. Everything swims when I try to focus on it, but I'm certain I heard Penny. There's only one other voice that makes me feel better, but Baz never comes here.

I look around and manage to focus on the body standing next to me, his hands lifted, and I jerk back. He's near the rubber bit they put in my mouth before I white out in agony, and I don't know why he's left my arm free but I'm not wasting this chance.

I swing at him hard, blinking when I find myself half draped across him instead. Nothing works the way it's meant to, and I'm too tired to fight down a sob. "Please, I don't want to anymore."

[sidestepdestiny]

Simon tries to hit me, I think, but he flops against me, too weak to do anything. My heart lurches painfully in my chest.

"Simon, it's me," I plead, trying not to panic that he doesn't seem to recognize me. Maybe they have him doped up on something that's making him delirious. I don't know what they've been doing to him, but I can't think about it right now. I have to get him out. I gently lay him back and work faster to free him of his restraints.

"I'm going to get you out of here, just hold on."

[worst_greatest_one]

He pushes me back, and I go with a groan, dizzy with so much movement. But he's freeing my other hand, and my feet, too, and I narrow my eyes, fighting through the constant wobble in my vision to see him.

His long hair has fallen into his eyes, but that's him, isn't it? Not another doctor or a patient. "Baz?" I murmur, my throat going tight.

[sidestepdestiny]

"Yes, it's me," I say, and I very nearly cry. My legs go weak that he still knows who I am. I don't have time right now to be selfish, but I'd be devastated if they'd done something to Simon to make him forget me.

My hands fumble with his last leg restraint, and I'm just so done that I tear it away.

"There's nothing to see here!" I cast again on the both of us, so we won't be noticed leaving this place. I know I should help the others get everyone else free, to fight; that would be the hero sort of thing to do. It would probably be would Simon would do. But I don't have it in me.

"I'm going to carry you, love, alright? Can you hold on to me?" I ask, scooping him up into my arms, my vampirism good for something, at least.

[worst_greatest_one]

I don't honestly know, but I try. He puts his arms around me and I wonder how it is I've managed for so long without. He feels and smells like home, and I burrow into him, so grateful to be leaving this awful, too bright room.

I want to see the sky again, grass and trees, and for the first time when my magic floods out of me, I feel it actually go somewhere. The ground beneath Baz's feet erupts in grass and flowers, and I breathe out. Merlin, that's better.

[sidestepdestiny]

Simon curls against me, making himself small. In the next breath, the room around us transforms into a meadow. One of the walls is gone, the grass extending out into the hallway.

"Crowley," I whisper. His magic never fails to astound me.

"This is lovely, but we need to leave. Simon," I ask, hesitantly, "is Bunce here? You were asking for her." I don't know whether that was real or not, but I know he won't forgive me if she's trapped in this place and we leave without her.

[worst_greatest_one]

I look away from the grass, past Penny standing in the doorway up to Baz. "She's just there," I tell him, smiling a little. He's not usually so easily distracted. "She waits for me in the hallway. She doesn't like it in here."

I think it's the screaming that bothers her most. It would if it were me.

[sidestepdestiny]

I look and see nothing but the open doorway, and feel a shiver go up my back from the way Simon says it. They must have him on some hallucinogen, and all I can do is just hope it wears off, or that a spell can clear his mind once we have a minute to ourselves in safety.

"Alright, she can follow us," I say, and head out that doorway with Simon in my arms, past people running by, the sound of fighting growing louder with each corridor we go down. The place is a damn maze, but I do my best to remember the way out.

[worst_greatest_one]

The lights passing overhead makes me dizzy again, so I close my eyes and let Baz carry me. It's so loud, and everyone's voices are so angry, but I'm not afraid as long as Baz has me.

I finally open my eyes when something cool hits my cheeks, and I blink up into the open night. "Are we going home?"

[sidestepdestiny]

"Yes, we'll take the Underground," I tell him, walking swiftly through the parking lot. We pass car after car, and then I realize. These cars, they must belong to the employees of this place.

Sadistic fuckers.

"Change of plans, darling. We're going to take a car." I go back toward the building. Whoever holds the most power has probably parked the closest. I find something shiny and black and expensive looking, and with my wand at the ready, cast, "Unlock! Unarm!"

The thing about mages is that we can create a spell to do just about anything. We have special wards and spells on our own property to keep other mages out. Using a spell like this, to steal, is restricted. But the Coven aren't here, are they?

I settle Simon carefully in the passenger seat and get in.

[worst_greatest_one]

It's so dark in here, and though it's a comfort after so many bright lights, my heart begins to pound. I can't quite remember what's happening, only that I felt safe and now I don't, but then Baz appears, sliding into the seat opposite me.

I reach for his hand, wincing as my own seizes up. I've felt so little pain apart from the machine, but even when they give me medicine to make my body loose, these still happen. I groan as my feet join in, cramped muscles drawing me into a ball.

[sidestepdestiny]

Simon reaches for me, but then doubles over in pain. The next moment, our car seats turn into something like giant clouds, or cotton; soft and fluffy and white. I sink down a little and look around, realizing the entire inside of the car has turned into the stuff.

"Simon?" I don't know what to say at first, but then I see it looks as though he's in real pain, so I cast, "Get well!" on him.

"What's wrong, Simon?"

[worst_greatest_one]

The seat becomes soft and warm, but my body still aches until Baz's spell washes over me, taking most of the cramping with it. I blink and feel suddenly clearer, still bone tired and raw, but less like I'm dreaming.

"Cramped up," I answer, staring at him. Fuck, what's happened to me? "From the machine." Did it really electrocute me? "Am I going mad?" I ask, my throat tight. "Baz, what's wrong with me? What's going on?"

[sidestepdestiny]

I stare at Simon with my mouth parted like a moron, but I don't understand why he's acting like he just got here, and it scares me. I didn't have a spare moment to think about why he was connected to something out of a Matrix movie, but now it hits me and I can hardly speak.

"You're not going mad, nothing's wrong with you, I promise," I say. "We'll figure it out, okay? I just-- we need to get home. I can't--" I stop, as the past two weeks rush up on me, and what it must have been like for Simon in there. I don't want to cry, not now, here in this fucking car. "Please. Can you start the car?"

I don't have the keys. I don't know a spell.

[worst_greatest_one]

I'm sitting on a fucking arse sized cotton ball inside someone's car, of course there's something wrong with me. Panic claws at my throat, all the moreso when Baz looks at me with honest terror in his eyes.

"Start," I say, suddenly desperate to be home. I'm not even wearing proper clothes, and I tug at my thin shirt, feeling my eyes go hot. "Start, you bloody fuck, Hurry up!"

My voice comes out like the boom from a firecracker, and the car jerks to life, flying halfway up the street before it slows. The sound of the engine firing makes me shudder, and I bury my face in my hands, curling away from it as far as I can.

[sidestepdestiny]

I nearly jump from the shout, and I grab belatedly for the wheel when the car takes off from Simon's magic. He's so upset and I don't know what to do. I hadn't thought about after, I just wanted to get him back.

I hit the gas and turn into traffic. I cast, "Make way for the king!" but my voice wavers at first and I nearly slam into a truck when it doesn't move. I cast it again, stronger this time, and speed up.

"I'm sorry, Simon." I reach over, pushing my fingers through his hair, stroking along the back of his neck while I drive. "I'm sorry. I'll cast more healing spells once we get out of the car. It's going to be okay," I tell him, trying to sound reassuring.

[worst_greatest_one]

I want to push him off of me, and that frightens me most of all. He touches my hair and I feel a phantom tug, my scalp stinging in memory of the way other hands handled me. He touches my shoulders and all I can feel is someone holding me down, and I scream into my balled up hands, the sound muted but not nearly enough.

I want to explode. I've never wanted to go off in my life, but I'm ready to claw at my skin, memories I can scarcely understand crowding in on me. I just want it to stop. I don't know what's happened to me, but I want it to stop.

[sidestepdestiny]

I jerk my hand away at Simon's muffled scream, not only at the sound, but at how unexpected it is. I hardly touched him.

"Did that hurt, when I touched you? Or was it something else?" I ask, glancing over between driving and trying to maintain the spell. I waver between parting traffic and getting us home sooner, or casting another healing spell.

"We're almost there, love, just a few minutes."

[worst_greatest_one]

I shake my head, but my throat is too tight, full of screams I don't want to let out. It hadn't hurt, Baz wouldn't hurt me, I know that, but it's like my body's confused. I tell my hands to stop shaking, but they won't. They tug at my hair instead, and I stay curled in on myself even though I want to sit up and help.

The car finally begins to slow, and I dare to look up, staring at Dimera like I've never seen it. "How long?" I choke out. "How long since I've been here?"

[sidestepdestiny]

He doesn't answer me, so I press harder on the gas, willing the car home. Somehow, I think, it will get better, if I can just get him somewhere of relative safety. Somewhere he knows, somewhere familiar where we can be alone.

Where he belongs. With me.

I park outside Dimera, not in the lot in case someone comes for the car. When Simon asks how long it's been, I can only stare at the steering wheel.

"Let's get inside," I say instead, opening my door. "We can talk in our flat." I go to his door to open it, to help him out and carry him inside.

[worst_greatest_one]

I let him lift me up. My feet are bare and my calves are cramping - I've got fuckall interest in walking right now, I just want to be inside. We pass through the front door and I watch it close over his shoulder, bars covering the glass door, then steel, then as much concrete as I imagine.

Suddenly exhausted, I slump down in his arms, wishing I had the wings to fly us up to our floor.

[sidestepdestiny]

As we cross the lobby Simon's magic wafts thick and cloying around us and I hear a strange sound behind me. I turn to look, and where the lobby doors once stood is now a smooth wall of concrete. A fresh wave of devastation hits me that he's that frightened. I could try to undo it, but my main priority is Simon, and honestly, I don't want to waste the magic.

I shift him in my arms, holding him tighter, and I continue on to the lift. "I'll keep you safe this time, I promise," I whisper to him.

I don't know if the elevator will scare him, so when the doors close around us I sing a quiet song.

[worst_greatest_one]

I'm alright when the doors close, but the light in the elevator is buzzing, well overhead but it feels like it's right beneath my skin. I shudder and press my face to Baz's neck. I don't hear the singing at first, but I can feel the hum in his throat, and I focus on that instead of the lights and somehow, it's bearable.

I wonder if his mum sang like this to him. The thought makes my eyes well up, and I fist my hand in his shirt, grateful when the doors finally ding open.