formerlysiryn | [Post-GAPS]

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[Post-GAPS]

Perhaps she's hiding away, but Terry thinks she has every bloody right to.

It had been days locked up in that facility, she finds out, days powerless, days spent poked and prodded and having her power tested like she's some sort of bloody lab rat. Whatever they'd done, they'd been good at it; good enough to kidnap her and others, good enough to get around their defenses, good enough to keep them locked up.

They'd been so good that after the rage burns through her, after she'd done her part and took off for the countryside to prevent herself from doing something she'd regret, all she'd felt was raw. Exposed. Careless.

She'd promised herself that would never happen again, but she can't even keep promises to herself anymore.

The school had come to mind first, the only place she could think of that was safe. Even if someone knew she was there, they wouldn't be able to get past the wards.

She's safe.

She's safe.

Once she showers, once she scrubs away a week of sweat and blood, constantly humming or singing to herself, filling the silence with her own voice as she changes into a fresh set of clothes, once she has no reason to move anymore--

It builds up in her chest first, a mounting pressure that rises, burning the back of her throat and clouding her vision with tears as she stumbles downstairs, makes it into the huge basement and trusts, trusts that she can let go of the scream she's been holding in for days and the world won't crumble around her.

[Let's say she left the basement door open a touch to be heard. Takes place the morning after GAPS plot wraps up.]

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With both Theresa and Luke missing, Raven hasn't known what to do. The halls of the school have felt even more empty than ever and her mind has been filled with all manner of fears. They could be gone permanently, like Charles, or maybe suffering the tortures of the same silent city that she and Sean had before he vanished forever, too.

It's almost been unbearable and she's only been able to busy herself with menial tasks around the property. She's been too weary to let herself be hopeful of any return, so it's with genuine surprise that she hears the noise from the basement she knows can only belong to one.

Raven can't help but run when she realizes it's her. "Theresa?"

The screams never affect her or blot out her own hearing, but when she lets it fade off and die out, Raven's voice is loud in the sudden silence. She hasn't been around other people since leaving that place, hasn't been around other powered people, and despite knowing better Terry touches her neck, reassures herself that she's only imagining the weight of that collar.

Raven's just there because she's a friend, not because she's being forced to. They're supposed to be safe here. She has to remember that.

When Terry looks at Raven she's so grateful to see her face. They hadn't gotten her, she can tell, and she's happy for that much. It's the only comfort she has at the moment.

"Hi," she manages, forcing her voice to stay steady and strong. It's the only part of her that feels so.

"What happened?" Raven asks, though she's not sure she wants to know. Looking into the seeing stones had terrified her even more than the stories she'd been warned of regarding her future, had made her aware that her fears weren't just possibilities, but realities elsewhere. Sometimes she just wants to beg it all off and feign ignorance. Today, though, she knows she has to find out. "Where did you go?"

Terry shakes her head at the question, not even sure how to answer it.

"Some...some lab." She spits the word out, lacing it with all the fear and rage she's had locked up within for days. "Someone got me, they got a bunch of us, they were runnin' experiments. On our powers."

Somehow making them absolutely helpless in the process, and Terry can't imagine anyone else who'd been caught up in that mess feels any better than she does at this very moment.

Immediately, Raven wants to be sick.

It's not quite a year since she'd seen herself tortured with electrodes on a cold, metal table. Back then, Theresa had been at her side to comfort her. She'd reminded her it wasn't real, but Raven can't offer her the same kindness right now.

In fact, she has no real idea what she can do.

"I'm so sorry," is all she can manage. She feels overwhelming guilt at the fact she somehow managed to avoid whatever atrocities befell Theresa and the others. She can't for the life of her imagine why. "Do you... should we go upstairs? Do you want to eat?"

Terry immediately regrets her words as she remembers the sorts of things Raven's been exposed to in the past, the things Terry knows she's afraid of. Any mutant would be right to be afraid of it, but Terry, stupid as it seems now, hadn't expected anything of that caliber to ever happen here.

All the past week has shown her is how much the human race stays the same, no matter where they are.

She breathes in deeply, carefully, and nods at Raven's questions. Company sounds good, food even better, and having her mind set on something else will help. For now, at least.

As she moves toward the door, Terry stops beside Raven, turning to look her over and happy to see her in one piece. "I'm glad ye weren't there."

Part of Raven is glad she wasn't there, of course, but most of her is stuck on the guilt that she was somehow spared. From what Charles had told her, experiments in her future were instrumental in being used against the mutant race.

She can cause so much damage, she knows, and yet she couldn't save Theresa from what went on.

"Food," she says by way of response, because she still doesn't know what else to say. She's sorry, she's stunned, she's sick to her stomach. They make their way up the stairs, toward the kitchen. "What are you in the mood for?"

Probably anything, Raven figures, but she still asks.

Terry nods and follows Raven, knowing she can't find it easy to deal with everything in such a short amount of time. Terry hardly knows how to feel about it all herself, beyond the rage that is fading bit by bit, replaced with a bone-deep weariness she hasn't felt in a long time.

It's a weariness that makes her weak, and as much as she doesn't relish the prospect of leaving the school, she already knows she'll be heading to group as soon as possible tomorrow.

"Anything, honestly," she says, knowing there isn't too much in the kitchen anyway. As long as it's not the bland crap they served in the facility, Terry will eat -- if only because she knows she must.

By the time they've reached the kitchen, Raven's blue again. She's been more open with her identity around the school, even if it's still a struggle.

There's only Theresa around, now, though, and she's one of the people who Raven trusts wholeheartedly.

She manages to find the makings of a sandwich and some fruit in the fridge, preparing it perhaps more slowly than she needs to so she can avoid the questions she needs to ask. "They hurt you?" she asks eventually, without looking up, pushing a plate across the counter at Theresa.

Terry barely blinks when Raven transforms, though there are moments she has to remind herself that Raven and Mystique aren't necessarily the same. Not anymore, anyway; the Mystique Terry knows is someone else entirely, a world away.

She's too tired to give much thought to it now, anyway. Raven is the one making her food and being a friend, and that's about all that matters, in the long run.

"No," she answers quietly, pulling the plate closer. She picks up a few grapes, eating slowly and enjoying the fruit after days of eating whatever they'd called food in that place. "They did hurt a few people, but not me. They kept me in a collar the whole time unless they wanted to test my scream. Kept me mute."

She can still feel the heaviness of the collar around her neck, though she knows all that's left of it is the redness from where it chafed.

Pain or no pain, the thought makes Raven feel sick. If halting Theresa's abilities was the goal, she has to figure that they'd try and stop Raven from being able to shapeshift.

She hates the idea of that more than almost anything. Not just because she'd be stuck looking like this forever, but because there are times where she half-enjoys having the ultimate upper hand at playing pretend.

Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, Raven pauses to stare at her blurred reflection in the stainless steel and wonder again why she was spared. "You must be thirsty," she says, finally, turning back and sitting down. "Were there many others?"

"There were quite a few," Terry says with a nod. She takes a long drink of water, doing her best to tip toe around the memories, take what she can remember and filter away the rage and helplessness as best as she can.

It's not perfect, but it helps for now.

"Not just mutants, I don't think. A werewolf. Some magic users. Some I couldn't tell one way or the other, but we were all powered."

He's not a pack leader, not here, yet Luke finds himself feeling the same sense of responsibility to those he's close to that he'd once felt for his pack. There are differences, of course, he's not expecting to dictate what Alec does the way he could with young wolves, and he doesn't ever treat Reid as his second in command, even though he and Reid have protected each other in the same sorts of ways he and Alaric had once done. The people he cares about aren't his pack the way he would have defined it in Manhattan, but maybe it's become its own definition now.

This is the reason he can't just stay home, though he thinks he should. He needs to check on people, though, and after making sure Reid is comfortable and not in too much pain, Luke heads first for the school.

The scream, when he hears it, is recognizable. More than that, it brings back memories of the past week, the things he'd heard from other cells, people screaming and begging and for a moment Luke just stands at the head of the stairs before taking them two at a time.

"Terry?" he calls, heading around a corner. "Terry!"

Had they captured Luke? Terry gathered that she'd been held for a much shorter time than some of the other powered people, and it had been hard not to hear everything going on. She knew there'd been a wolf, but she hadn't known who and didn't have the ability to find out.

Either way, hearing him near is enough for her to shut down, her scream dying off as it gives way to heavy breathing that she knows will turn into sobs if she lets it.

That she's alone is the first thing he registers and any urge to transform dies as soon as he realizes she's not in danger. His eyes flash yellow and his teeth have lengthened, but in just a moment he's back to looking just like himself as he shoulders the door open the rest of the way and comes into the room.

She was there, too. Somehow he knows it just by looking at her. If she hadn't been captured, something else had happened during the week he was missing, but he thinks if that was the case, either she or Raven would have found a way to tell him.

"Hey," he says, crossing the room. "It's okay. We're... you were there, too, weren't you?"

He was there, and somehow that gives a darker shade to the whole godawful mess. Maybe knowing he was near would have made it incrementally easier to bear -- or made it worse, knowing she could do nothing to help.

Terry nods in response, forcing herself to breathe evenly, finding slight comfort in the small noises that accompany each breath.

"They took my voice," she says quietly, and to remind herself that she still can, she modulates her voice to keep it steady even as her vision clouds with tears. "The last time that happened a wolf ripped my throat up. I was mute for months."

The scars, faded though they might be, are still there, a daily reminder that her life could always be worse.

He hadn't known there was a wolf and a flash of guilt ripples through him at Terry's words, unfounded though it may be. He can understand why she might not have wanted to tell him, not after he had revealed to her what he is, but he wishes he'd known. He might have found a better, gentler way to tell her.

Shaking his head, Luke steps closer, though he keeps a bit of distance between them. If she wants, she can step away, make it clear she doesn't want to be touched, but as he had when he'd seen Magnus and Rapunzel, he just wants to hug her, find some way to make it better.

"I'm sorry," he says. "They kept me in silver." When they weren't forcing him to fight.

She watches Luke for a moment, tries to imagine what it must have been like for him but all she can come up with are her own memories. The helplessness, the anger, it all bleeds together into a huge mess that she's not sure she can handle.

And Terry wouldn't blame anyone else for feeling the same yet here Luke is, concerned for her even though he should be at home with Reid.

"Ye're alright?"

"I'm alright," he says, although he's sure they both know what he really means by that. He's alive, he's healed, he's free, those are all important things, but he doubts either of them are really alright. Not yet.

They'll get there, he's sure of that.

"Magnus was there with us. I saw a few people here and there when they thought it might benefit them somehow." He pauses, then grimaces. "They kept trying to make me turn their soldiers. Bite them, infect them."

She sighs, reminded that she hadn't been alone in there; that even as she made her escape and left the whole facility behind, there'd been people fighting their way out as well. Who else could she have counted as a friend had been in there?

Terry closes the distance between them easily, wrapping her arms around Luke's waist for a hug. He's warm and familiar, and even though she knows he's not doing well either, she still draws strength from him. "Did ye? Infect anyone?"

Of everything she knows about werewolves, and of what she knows of Luke, she can't even being to imagine what it must have been like to face it.

The hug is easy and needed and Luke wraps his arms around Terry in return, sighing softly. For a moment he doesn't answer and then he shakes his head.

"No," he says. "I never have before and I wasn't going to let them bully me into changing that." He'd paid for it, of course, he's sure Terry understands that without needing it to be said out loud. They'd hurt him when he refused to bite people, but he had been able to take it. It isn't as if that's the worst he's ever suffered through.

Pulling back, he gives Terry's shoulders a squeeze and looks at her again. "They took your voice?" he asks.

"Good," Terry says quietly, glad that for all that had been done to them in there, they hadn't been broken. Not entirely.

She feels like she is, but she knows herself, and knows she needs some time. Eventually this will pass, as it has before, and she'll go on. There will be one more thing weighing her down, but it won't even be the worst thing that's ever happened to her.

"They did," she answers with a nod. She tilts her head back a bit, showing the pink ring around her throat. The collar, even though it had been smooth, had been cold and heavy, chafing her skin the longer she had it on. "It was some sort o' collar, it paralyzed my vocal cords."

She'd pretty much disintegrated the thing on her way out, making sure it would never be used again.

"By the Angel," he murmurs and shakes his head before he rolls up the sleeve of his flannel shirt, exposing the nearly healed burn around his wrist. "They used silver. My hands and feet, sometimes my throat depending on how much I was fighting back that day. They knew what to do for every last one of us."

Silver for him, the collar for Terry, they'd bled Magnus, confused and disoriented Simon somehow.

"I think they were watching us," he says. "For weeks before. I could sometimes hear or see people who looked out of place and then, about four days before they took me, I was attacked on my way home. It was them. It had to be."

Terry hisses when she sees his wrist, knowing it must have looked much worse before he'd been free enough to start healing.

She shakes her head when Luke voices what she'd been thinking, voices the reason why she'd come straight here and not home.

"I was headin' inside my building when they got me," she admits, and she wonders when she'll be able to step back inside that place without feeling like it's been violated -- and without thinking about how stupid she must have been, how blind. "I didn't notice a thing. I can't remember thinkin' that anyone was followin' or watchin' me, and I should know better. I've gotten too bloody comfortable here."

"We're told we're safe here. Why wouldn't we be comfortable?" he asks, but it's obvious now they're not safe, not entirely. "It isn't your fault for not noticing. The only reason I noticed is because Spencer has been dealing with something with the vampires. I've been more careful than usual because of that."

He doesn't know if he would have picked up on them had he not been so aware of Reid's growing feud with some of the vampires in the city.

"They came into the store," he says. "Surprised me there. If I hadn't already been looking for trouble, I don't think I would have noticed them. They were able to get into the store without me even realizing they were coming."

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[Post-GAPS]

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