girlsolo | After March 9: the broken locks were a warning you got inside my head

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After March 9: the broken locks were a warning you got inside my head

Ever since she found Finnick screaming for Annie, Kate's been restless. Strung tight like she hasn't been for months now. Not even when she realized B (Buffy, not Bella) was gone so soon after William's Uncle Jack. That'd just been sad, in that slow, aching way that punching bags or bodies doesn't help.

She can't sleep, even with Declan, and since Bonny keeps him up about half the time anyway, it'd be a dick move to take up more of his sack time with trying to tire her out. It probably wouldn't work anyway. Running, swimming, surfing, training, chasing kids, playing hoops, target practice, nothing works, and it's only gotten worse since Bella fell.

If she does sleep, she dreams of Thad getting eaten by the Sorkel instead of Constantine, or seeing dad get blown up but turning into Jimmy at the last second, or Will turning into a Psillobar or not coming back after Kali, or Biggie dead and Magnus batshit and it really doesn't take her shrink best pal to work out the kinks in her psyche (not that kind, but he can probably figure those out too, which is why they're never, ever talking about it). She's freaked out about the roots she's putting down here. Even more freaked out about not having anywhere to run when it hurts too much to stay. And don't even get her started about not being able to protect the people she's let herself care about.

It's late, it's dark, drinking just makes her emotionally sloppy, getting high makes her think too much. She's sick of everything and crawling out of her skin. So what makes a blind run down to the Compound a good idea? The promise of a shower, maybe some tea, and a movie at the end of it. She can watch movies on her laptop, but she left it at Declan's and the last time Bonny licked her in her sleep, she had dreams of being trapped in a cave with a million squirmy worms.

So she's scanning the bookshelf for something decent to watch instead of choosing from everything she loves in her own space. The hot shower and tea have just managed to soothe the sharpest of her edges off when the light catches on reel in a shiny case, fallen on a diagonal in a gap between two others.

Kate freezes.

Sanctuary

Instantly the edges are gone and Kate busts out all over spines. Like a porcupine or pufferfish. But she can't help reaching for the reel. And the next one. And the next and the next and the next and the next. Seven in all. Kali, pts 1, 2 and 3, which she shoves in the hemp bag she brought with her. She knows what that is. Penance, she knows that from the script, and shoves it away too, all the way to the bottom. Metamorphosis, and maybe Kate's not the most educated person but she remembers the Kafka jokes from when Will was turning into that thing and that goes into the bottom of the bag with him dying to save the world from a giant sea spider, while she swallows back the acid and the chill. The Bank Job's pretty self-evident, and even makes her smile a little. If Will knew, if they hadn't agreed not to tell him, she could show him that reel. They'd had fun on that job. But she can't, so she bags it too.

The last one's called Acolyte and she can't think of anything that's happened that might get that title. The smart thing to do is bury them before they can fuck her up more, but it's like Danny with Grace. Kate has to know. She has to know what's happening to Hank and Biggie, to the versions of Will and Magnus, Declan and Tesla and herself that she left back home.

Wishing there were somewhere private to watch these things, Kate edges over to the projector, head low and trying not to catch the attention of any of the other night owls. She fumbles the canister open with shaking fingers and snaps the film onto the arm. It takes a couple of tries to get it fed through, but she does, starts the film, hops the back of the couch and then sinks low into it.

It starts with Will's voice saying "Previously on Sanctuary" and she laughs nervously. That dissolves at Magnus looking gorgeous and talking to Will. It cuts to a guy she doesn't recognize talking about Hollow Earth saying they just signed the Sanctuary's death warrant.

"Typical genre melodramatic bullshit," she mutters to cover the catch in her chest at seeing and hearing Biggie, then Will, Declan and Henry are driving through the jungle talking about Magnus and where is she?

Will shouts, "Magnus, come in. You've got to get out of there now--!" and then a hotel explodes. It crumbles like the Twin Towers to the sound of Declan, master of British understatement saying, "My God."

Credits roll, Kate can't decide if she loves the music or hates it, but she knows how this stuff works, so she's not panicked about Magnus blowing up. Not yet. But exploding buildings and people she cares about…yeah.

Half an hour later, she's seen herself come up from Hollow Earth - she's living down there? - to deliver a message to Magnus, interrogate some dude from species she doesn't know with Will (who says Hollow Earth is treating her well), find a bunch of dead humans and Abnormals and uncover a key piece of evidence in a terrorist plot. Biggie's brainwashed. "Fuck this fucking show! Goddamn it! It better not be real!" because she's crying and she doesn't cry and that's before she and Magnus get through the gate guards "the old-fashioned way," "Krav-Maga them" according to this Addison asshole, and she smashes Biggie in the head with a fire extinguisher -

To keep him from blowing himself and her and Magnus up with his suicide bomb vest.

They get him out, but the hotel explodes anyway, their van rolls, and Kate sees herself unconscious, battered, bleeding ,and Magnus sounding terrified when she calls her name. Cut to Will sitting by a bed reading, her bed, she realizes, and they do the wake up dance. She's been out for a week, Magnus did two surgeries, Sally's been helping remap Biggie's brain and Kate's…

Running her fingers over a bracelet. The bracelet. The goddamned bracelet that was in her jewelry box. What the hell?

"Did the doc say when I'll be well enough to travel?"

"Calm down, okay? You just woke up."

"I just really should be getting back to Hollow Earth. People will be worried."

"Is that a… Herusan promise band? From Garris? I looked it up."

"Yes."

Yes?!

"Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"Oh, fuck me sideways." Kate pauses, her stomach flips over in a tight, hot knot and her voice is raw from crying. "Seriously?" She doesn't even know this Garris guy.

[[ooc: There's a youtube full episode here and a transcript here. Feel free to find Kate at any point of the episode. If you come before she starts the reel, she may not or may choose a different one, depending. Caveat: Cerie and Callie do not want Magnus and Will canon-punctured, so if yours are going to need to tell them, please don't tag. ]]

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Kate hears the movement behind her and she closes off, definitely not inviting conversation. But it goes quiet again and Kate goes back to the images on the screen.

She can almost feel the sun on her face when the scene shifts and she sees herself there. The movement and sound in the room becomes Phoebe sitting on the couch and Kate acknowledges her with a nod. Phoebe's fine. Whatever's happening here, even her dodging Will's questions about some "Garris" isn't a problem.

"Turns out there's a tv show about us back home," she says, not bothered by that. It's kind of off-handed, even, since she's more ticked about that damned bracelet being hers from home than anything else yet. "Not sure yet if it's all made up or some kind of documentary."

Kate had told her that it existed, especially knowing Kirk was on the island, but this was the first time that it was more than something nebulous. She felt like she was dream walking in one of her visions only with someone that she knew rather than her own. Phoebe had never told Kate or anyone that she was a witch, or was one, she wasn't sure how that technically worked without powers.

"Can you tell from how it's playing out if it could have happened or is the situation and actions of everyone something that wouldn't happen?"

It was always hard to tell if it was a vision of what could occur if steps weren't taken to avoid it or what was written in stone and going to happen. Like a future memory.

"Looks real," Kate answers without skipping a beat. Shrugs a little, too. She's tense, annoyed, not really looking for conversation, but whatever. It's easier to treat it like some bad paranormal show she's watching with a pal than This Is Your Life, Kate Freelander.

"Everyone's acting like themselves pretty much." Except her and that damned bracelet but who knows when this is supposed to be? "Things were pretty tense in Hollow Earth when I left, so, yeah, it could happen."

She watches, tips her chin at the screen. "That's Henry. He's not here, but Will and Magnus are. They don't know about the reels, so you can't tell them. Declan knows though." She misses it, misses home and misses them, but she shoves that all down. Walls up, no emotion to see her. Move along.

Phoebe mentally winced. Which meant it was either a 'vision' of what would be or what happened to another Kate.

She understood all too well the feeling of homesickness and it would be threefold to see a film of your life with the people that you missed. A bittersweet kick in the stomach. She didn't push the conversation but drew her legs up under her chin and watched.

"He's cute." Phoebe said with a hint of a smile when she saw Henry, trying to keep it light in the tension you could cut with a knife. "In a geek kind of way."

"Not a bad kisser, either," Kate answered, almost offhandedly, distracted by the story on the screen but glad for the tug and tie to the island. It kept her from getting too intense about it. "He'd forget how to talk around you."

The scene shifts to the London Sanctuary and her and Will being her and Will. Her fingers curl around the couch cushion she's got against her stomach. She forgets, makes herself forget, how close they were at home. How much time she and him and Henry spent together, even with Abby.

She laughs, short and sharp, when it switches again to Magnus in this Addison asshole's doorway with unconscious bodyguards at her feet and her looking perfectly posh. Good to see you again, Doc. "BAMF. Total HBIC. You have no idea."

"I have that affect on a lot of people or rather my boobs do." Phoebe laughed and settled more comfortably, glad that the tension was easing slightly but it was still an undercurrent surrounding Kate. When Magnus appears on the screen, Phoebe watches her fighting style more than the woman herself. It was a habit.

"Damn, she's good." Phoebe wondered if Magnus felt restless with only island life and no action like that or if it was something that you would adapt to after awhile. She kind of hoped for the last one.

"You do have a great--" The words cut off at Addison showing Magnus the pictures of Biggie. Kate shoots up straight, instantly pissed off. "No way." She's shaking her head and her hands are curled into fists. If that Addision was here, she'd be ripping his face off. "No. He'd never. It has to be a trick."

Come on, Magnus. Tell him he's wrong. Or tell us. It's a plan, right? Like the ozone beetle and faking Biggie's death. It has to be. Phoebe might as well not be there at all.

When Kate's comment was cut off and her body stiffened, everything in Phoebe stiffened with her in empathy. She might not have any idea what is truly going on, on the screen but she understands the emotion. There were so many times that she thought the same thing with Cole. That she instantly defended him, knowing that there was something else that would explain his actions. Phoebe wouldn't say that she was never wrong about him but she rarely was.

She also trusted Kate's instincts to know her people. If her gut told her that it was some kind of trick, then it was.

No way, no how. The big guy would never do something like this, Will says and Kate has a sudden fierce flash of just why she loves him. He never stops believing in them, not ever. He's the first person who said you can be more and the stuck around to make sure she did it.

...and he's turned into a really good shot. Things must be bad. Not like Will can't shoot. He was trained at Quantico. But he's not usually the first one to draw a gun or to use it.

The scene shifts and there's Henry and that hope and faith turns to ash. She knows that face, both of them. And... "No," she whispers but she can't even squeeze her eyes shut or hide her face from Phoebe. She can't care right now. She has to know. It has to be okay. It has to.

If it had been anyone else, Phoebe wouldn’t have intruded. Hell, she would have left before now, but there was no way in hell she was going to abandon her friend when she was watching something so gut wrenching and emotional. She quietly sat there, being supportive and there if she was needed. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that when it was over it would require copious amounts of alcohol to forget or copious amounts of sex for distraction. Phoebe could at least offer one.

Rather than have her focus be on the screen as Kate’s was, Phoebe’s focus was mostly on Kate to detect any no trespassing signs.

The no trespassing signs are all over the place. They're just knocked over, torn down, rusted out from shock and disbelief and a spill of tears she doesn't even notice she's watching so hard. She can't believe it. She won't. This can't be what happens. Not after Father Jensen.

"It's wrong," she whispers, because Phoebe needs to know. "He wouldn't do this." No matter what it looks like, he wouldn't do this.

And then, just that fast, Magnus has it figured out. The Crixorum. Kate feels...years behind, like she should've known or figured that out. But she barely knows what a Takterran is. They met like one in Hollow Earth last time.

She feels like she should be doing something. Her family's being torn apart and all she can do is watch.

Phoebe aches to reach out and give comfort with an almost physical ache, but she doesn't. She knows that it wouldn't be appreciated and she also suspects that Kate might not notice. So lost in her whirl of emotions. Phoebe isn't sure that Kate will even hear her, but she speaks quietly anyway.

"Maybe you're being shown this from another reality, so that when you go back you can prevent it from happening in yours." The fact that people do go back is irrefutable, she's heard of people leaving and other versions or likeness arriving. So while some people could see this 'show' as just that, Phoebe views it as a type of 'vision'.

"Be the first time the island did anything useful," Kate snaps, but it's not the worst thought. It lets her take a short breath and nod, take in more of the details, things that might help her know when this happens when (if) she gets home. So far she knows it's after she goes to Hollow Earth and after the catch the Crixorum, but there's nothing else to place it in time for her.

She fades back into tense quiet, watching everything as if she were living it. Assessing their moves, thinking they were way to slow to pick up on the misdirect. They totally got played and if Addison had given them the right information from the beginning they could've stopped it.

Now it's going to come right down to getting Biggie before he can blow himself and everything else up. Fuck. If she'd been there in the Sanctuary, she would've noticed. She would've known that Biggie was acting weird. Will and Henry and Magnus might've been too busy with whatever, but she wouldn't have been. But instead she was off getting her rocks off or whatever with some guy in Hollow Earth.

Phoebe's muscles tense as the scene on the screen changes. This isn't anything that she's had to deal with vision or in reality and she sympathizes with Kate. It's horrific to see something, second guess yourself on a reality that hasn't happened yet and wonder about each decision you will make or have made. She can't even imagine what Kate is going through, though in a way she can with the numerous visions that she's had. When she watches Magnus and Kate in the underground parking lot, she flashes back to times when she'd tried to talk to Cole. Her heart clinched at all those involved, including the big guy.

Kate's fingers curl into the cushions of the couch, grip tighter than the knots in her stomach. Her head's pounding and she could seriously puke from nerves. She wonders if this is what it's like to be afraid of a fight, because her mouth tastes bitter and she almost can't watch.

But if there's anyone who can get that bomb defused, it's... yeah, no. Two minutes isn't enough to work with. They're going to have to--that, yeah. And...

Shit, she'd forgotten already about the explosion at the beginning. The building's imploding and Will's shouting for Magnus and her and Kate just sort of tears down the middle. God, Will. She's supposed to be protecting them, and if he sounds like that, she totally screwed up.

As much as Phoebe wanted to comfort Kate, she didn't even make the slightest move toward her. She knew that she was unintentionally intruding on a scraped raw emotional roller coaster and the last thing that Kate needed was empathy. Or even worse, sympathy, so Phoebe didn't cross the imaginary line. Instead, she gave her quiet support and felt her own fingers curl tightly into the cushion of the chair. When the building exploded, a small hiss of breath escaped her lips despite her best efforts.

Phoebe's breath hisses and Kate turns her head sharply, expecting to see some danger in the room. Something she'd missed. But Phoebe's watching the screen just like her and Kate nods to herself. Makes sense. It's a tense scene, like in a movie.

She's not scared of dying. Not really worried she's going to end up being dead. It just doesn't feel like the goodbye Kate episode or whatever. Feels like just another day at the Sanctuary. Will turns into monsters, Kate gets blown to hell. Yeah, she's nervous but the fade-to-black and scene change shows them Will by a bed, her bed, and she catches her breath again.

Of course she asks all the questions and her mouth quirks with a little yeah, that's right or maybe that's for Will sitting there, worried about her, her best friend, not Magnus's husband. God, she misses--

"Wait. What?" She's toying with that fucking bracelet and mooning about some dude named Garris and-- "Oh. No way. Uh uh. You've got to be shitting me."

Now that Phoebe had quite a lot of experience in. Sadly. She turned her body away from the screen and looked at Kate. "Oh I so get that. When Cole proposed to me, the first time, I freaked. Honest to God, deer caught in the headlights oh hell no freaked." She debated a half a second but seeing Kate's life if only a version that possibly could happen, told Phoebe that she'd understand Phoebe being a witch.

"I even did a spell that brought up every single one of my fears." She made a face, "it bit me on the ass and turned me into a cliche 50s housewife complete with slippers and pipe waiting for my man." Phoebe almost gagged at the thought. "Needless to say my fear that I'd lose me in a relationship only had me pushing Cole further away."

It hadn't stuck of course because Cole was stubborn like that and her love for him was enough to finally get over her fears.

It takes a few beats for Kate to pull herself back from what she's seeing and feeling to follow where Phoebe's going with this story. When she gets to the end, Kate nods, maybe a little too emphatically. "Yeah. I love Declan, and I love being with him, but I can't even imagine getting married. I don't know about losing myself. It's just..." She shrugs and then spits out, "Tying myself down like that," because if you can't admit to one of your best galpals who just saw you almost die and find out you were engaged that forever seems more like a life sentence, who can you admit it to?

It all kind of comes circle and catches up with her, then, and she stops. Blinks. Frowns. She's more confused than weirded out or anything when she says, "Wait. Spell?"

Phoebe holds up her hands, palms upward facing the ceiling. "Surprise. Yeah a spell. I'm a witch Or I guess technically it's more that I was a witch back home." She still wasn't so sure how she felt about not having powers. "You're not supposed to use magic for gain and when you do, it backfires."

Which was why she'd been transformed into a 50s housewife.

"Guess that's why you didn't freak about Biggie, the Takterran and the Crixorum," Kate says, tone kind of dry. It's not like she's been telling Phoebe her whole story so she's not ticked or anything but it's definitely a surprise.

She gets up to stop the stupid flap-flap-flap of the projector and looks at Phoebe across the machine. "So, the whole witch thing. Is that like Harry Potter, you know, this whole world of magic normal people don't know about or what?"

Phoebe was about to shake her head but stopped herself. “I guess in a way. I mean, I can be open about being a witch except people would assume new age Wicca full of crap, head in the clouds. But truly letting people see my powers, I can never do that. I’d be a lab rat at best.” She ruthlessly pushed away memories. “But I have it lucky, my powers are seeing visions and empathy. They’re not exactly active powers that people can see.”

She grinned, “I did spend time as a medium in a hotel for money when I first got my powers. That was actually kind of fun.” Until she’d seen a man get run over by a car and she tried to warm him only to have it happen because he was trying to get away from her.

"I don't even want to think about your powers and my con skills in Vegas," Kate decides, but that's mostly because it's depressing how easy it would be to take people and walk away rich.

"Are there lots of witches?" This seems like an important line of questioning. Anything that isn't who is Garris? and why did I leave the Sanctuary for him? is a good line of questioning. Uh huh.

"More than you'd think." Phoebe nodded her head. "New age Wiccans are a good cover for real witches with power. There were even witches in Salem." Her lip curled up thinking about her ancestor. "One of my ancestors was a witch there. Cliche I know."

She was also aware of what Kate was doing and understood it to her soul. Distracting thoughts were always better than your own.

"Huh. Cool." She's interested, as much as she ever is about stuff like this, but it's hard to focus with her mind full of questions that Phoebe can't answer. No one on the island can answer, and even if they could she wouldn't want to talk about (except with Will) if she didn't have to.

"Come on," Kate says, restlessly shoving the reels in her bag. "Let's get out of here. I could use a drink or ten."

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blackb3ltbarbie - 2012-03-24 00:17 (UTC) - Expand

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