Fractal’s Breakdown Begins, Part I

Posted on Thu Sep 28th, 2023 @ 4:17pm by First Lieutenant Bethany Harrison & Private Mattias Tonelly & General Dyami Bentley (Tribal : Bent Leaf)

Mission: HYDRA: Another Head Rises
Location: Shaman's Cabin
Timeline: Present Day

The night was crisp, a cold touch of fall in the air. The cabin was dimly lit from the inside, none of the outside lanterns were lit so as to not interrupt the proceeding of the stars in the dark night sky. Dyami and Mattias were sitting on the porch, each with a glass of iced tea near them, admiring the beauty of the natural surroundings.

The cabin was old, very old, but it had been rebuilt many times to prolong its usefulness. Dyami had once played on the steps of this cabin when he was young, his Grandfather teaching him the names of the stars. Not the white man's names, however, the true names of the stars which were passed down to him by his ancestors. Names that held secret power if you knew how to access it. Dyami knew these secrets, and was showing Mattias some simple spells to pass the time.

They were waiting for his protege, Beth, to arrive from her meditations about a mile away up the creek at the waterfall. They had been at the ranch for the better part of two weeks, and things were not progressing very well. Beth had lost her one true love and the second half of her soul, quite literally. If he was honest with himself, which the Indian man usually was, things were getting worse, not better.

And he suspected that it would come to a head soon. The Shaman and his newest student spoke about many things during the wait, mainly small talk and Dyami explaining tidbits of magic to the curious young man.

Mattias absorbed all he was told like a sponge. While he knew he still had much to learn, he also recognized that he was well on his way to becoming the man that his parents would have been proud of.

Dyami’s preternatural hearing heard the almost ghostly quiet footsteps of the young woman that he called daughter headed down the path from the north. He could smell the frustration and anxiety radiating off of her like heat waves off of a flame. He knew where she was even without seeing her. His other senses telling him what his eyes could not. The Shaman could feel the storm of her emotions coming down the path, as easily as he would be able to tell a rainstorm was approaching.

Before she reached the cabin he turned to Mattias, “Try to keep calm, things might be said tonight that you will need to hold in confidence as a friend. Do not take anything personally as this will most likely be directed completely at the universe and, to a lesser extent, at me.”

Mattias could feel a difference in the atmosphere around them. Nodding silently, he stayed quiet, listening to everything around him.

Dyami stood and waved his hand to the already stocked bonfire in the middle of the training yard. The bonfire was in the same place it had been for generations, a ring of large stones marked the boundary of the area. The stones were burned and glossy from repeated exposure to intense flames, some much hotter than a normal fire. Around the ring of stone were nearly a dozen hardwood logs, each worn smooth by time and countless visitors resting their weary bones while engaging in conversation with friends, enemies, and family. Speaking a single word the logs burst into red and yellow crackling flames. “I thought you might be wet and cold so we prepared a fire to warm you,” he said to the empty night air.

Bethany suddenly seemed to step out of nowhere, clad in her typical black battle dress pants, a short-sleeved black shirt, and mid-thigh length black leather jacket. She wore no shoes, and the unusually thick braids that were draped over her shoulders seemed unruly and were streaked with dangerous oranges and reds.

She tossed her boots to the side of a large log that had been worn smooth and dyed with the smoke of many, many fires. The young light-bearer sat down wordlessly, staring into the fire, with the light of the spectrum swirling in eyes that were normally a bright, clear emerald. She raised a hand to the flames and drew in the light, dimming a small area around her as she seemed to study the inferno.

“I grow tired of this, father,” the young brawler nearly growled. “I have things to hunt, and it is not the deer of the field, on foot, with a pocket-knife.”

The shaman smiled. “At least you got a knife. I was given a rock.” He chuckled quietly, then continued, “You carry a heavy weight on your shoulders my daughter. As I have for many years for my sister.”

Bethany closed her eyes, the furious, swirling colors still visible through her eyelids, and sighed heavily. She reached up with her free hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. “And I could truly believe that you would have walked to school, uphill both ways, if only to make your own life more difficult,” she muttered angrily. “Are you pleased with the monster you created?” She asked, her voice low and sinister, almost lost to the hissing of the flames.

Dyami sighed. He had been right. Damn his intuition. Tonight was going to be a turning point in time. The Indian man was not one to shy away from his creations, and this was not the first time he had to face a person consumed by rage at the universe or even at himself. The only real question was how to handle her. He knew the young woman inside and out, knew that if nothing more she craved the truth. But he would make her ask for it.

“Was that rhetorical since I am sure you already know the answer, or is it that you want to hear me say it?”

“No, I do not need to hear you say it,” Bethany said coldly, standing and stretching, the area around the young brawler dimming further. She opened her eyes and stared through the flames. “This is why you wouldn’t let me die. I made that decision when I stepped in front of Cece and took that blade! You snatched that from me just to keep me as some kind of twisted lapdog, on a leash that you forged to keep me compliant! You are no better than the others that have sought to control me!”

“Ah, I think I understand. You seem to forget that you agreed to this. You knew who and what I was, you knew what I was going to make you into. And that day when you lay bleeding out in the snow, held in the arms of the only other man in this world to love you, I saved your life. Not because I wanted a lapdog, but because he begged me to. He offered his own life for yours at that moment, and I chose the middle ground to save you and tie your soul to his.”

As Dyami quietly circled the fire towards the young brawler his clothing slowly changed from his normal jeans and a t-shirt, to his traditional Native leathers. Streaks of ash covered his eyes and crimson colored berry juice stained his lips, dripping down his face like blood. The fire grew in intensity, recovering the light the girl had taken. The power of his energy was thick and oppressive in the night air. Sounds of things moving in the forest just outside the circle of light could be heard.

“You are the only person I have called my daughter in all my many years. You must understand that what you choose to do is your choice, but do not blame me for the trials of life. I sought to give you the life you wanted, I sought a monster and you offered yourself up. I made you who you are to serve both of our desires. I have led you down a path but I have never leashed you.”

As the two spoke, Mattias quietly rolled his wheelchair to the front of the porch. He could feel the energy in the air and there was a part of him that was drawn to it, hungering almost for the release that came from that energy.

Not being one that tended to flee from an impending fight, Bethany stood her ground, seemingly unconcerned by her father’s familiar theatrics. The young brawler crossed her arms over her chest, her nano sliding over and covering her body, and her gaze narrowed. A slow, sinister chuckle began from some agonized depth, slowly rolling into a short, tortured laugh.

“Maybe I just wanted him to be away from the daily nightmares. Or maybe I wanted away from them. Just...day after day adding more and more weight to an already weary soul. I was glad to die to see him happy,” she said, her tone shifting as she spoke, from angry, to cold and distant.

While the young brawler had long ago learned how to disguise her mental slide into that frigid place that lay somewhere between her conscious and subconscious mind, it had already locked into place. Pain was not typically an issue, as adrenaline coursed through her body, and her emotional mind was replaced with a mental overlay of tactical patterns and probabilities. The Preacher had not beaten fear into her, he had burned into her a cold, tactical indifference, the only way to have the force of will to get up day after day and fight the demon that wore that hateful man’s face.

Bethany was not a stupid woman, and she knew the predator that approached. Very, very well. “And maybe he had a choice in all this, but no one bothered to ask me,” she said evenly, with only a hint of a dark, sarcastic tone.

Talon’s tone was calm and controlled. “Those on the doorstep of death do not often get to choose if they live or die. Would you rather I had taken his life and given it to you?” The Indian stopped mere feet from the young woman.

“Of course not,” he said firmly, leaning in slightly to look into the girl's rainbow colored eyes, “I can understand your pain, I touched your souls, I know the love you two held for one another, I gave you years that you would not have had. Which is more than many people get.”

Talon stood to his full height. “I gave you a choice when you first came to me. Learn to become the monster that we needed to destroy those who took everything from us.” The shaman said, “Do you think that I would let death take you so easily?”

“If you think that your time would be best spent somewhere else other than here.I have three things to say,” he held up a finger in front of him.

“One, I strongly suggest you stay and deal with your grief. I will do my best to help with that.” Raising a second finger he continued.

“Two, as I said earlier you are on no leash.” slowly raising a third finger while staring into her eyes.

“And three, I will support you in any choice you make that does not end your life. You are always welcome by my side, daughter.”

Talon put down his hand slowly, hoping she would stay but knowing that the odds were against him in this choice. Still it was hers to make. He had given her the training and the tools, if she used them was up to her.

Mattias sat quietly, listening to the exchange between his two new friends, new family. He could feel the air around them changing to one filled with danger. He started to grip his armrests without realizing it.

There was a bit of a pause as she listened to Talon, and she shook her head, not even glancing at his hand. “Stop acting obtuse, Old Man.” Another surge of pained, sarcastic laughter echoed off into the night before she stiffened and stretched her neck. “First of all, he loved Cece. She loved him. He would have moved on.”

Bethany paused and sighed deeply, before continuing, as though giving a dispassionate report. “I know that, because I felt that, by the way. He chose to be with her, even after this hellish bond of yours,” she said, giving a slight shrug. “Nothing quite like having that little dark cloud forever lingering overhead, right? Of course I agreed to leave that all behind and train out in the middle of nowhere. I had to survive, or he would die. That’s it. That’s all that mattered.”

The light around her dimmed again as she went on, “I’m alive, am I? Had a few good years of it? Maybe. But, ya know what? I’m the one that’s suffering all of the consequences for your actions. I’m the one paying the cost of a pact that I never had a choice in.”

“Do you know why it was so easy to bind your souls? Because they were already bound by the Great Spirit. You call it hellish, I call it one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. And yes, you are suffering for choices made by others. Choices made for you out of love, and respect. I know that what you did was a selfless act. That you think that you knew what would make him happy, and as a bonus you could save the life of someone he loved,” Dyami said frankly.

“And as far as Jon and Cece are concerned,” Dyami continued, “Jon was confused and torn between loving two women. I hope that you understand that is one of the many flaws that most men must overcome. It is a survival trait from days long past, but sadly not long enough to fall by the wayside. But you must also accept the fact that he chose you in the end. And was far happier by your side than hers.”

“I couldn’t stop it any other way,” Bethany said, still cold, distant. “And I knew it would destroy him if she died. And if Xander hadn’t awakened, he would have been out of my life anyway. That was the plan. He’s the only thing that matters to me. And now, because of that so-called beautiful bond, he’s stuck in some alien box, trapped in the dream realm, just so I can keep going. At least he’s happy there. He’s alive, and he’s happy. That’s all I ever wanted for him.”

----------

TBC

----------


Bethany Harrison
Fractal
Mutant Underground

Dyami Bentley
Talon
Mutant Underground

Mattias Tonelly
(Unnamed Trainee)
Mutant Underground