Iron Bars a Cage

[April]

Eve was silent on the journey topside, her initial cheer had rapidly faded away and now she looked withdrawn and pensive, and more than a little tired. The helicopter was waiting for them when they reached the helipad, the rotors already spooled up and chopping at the air. It was only when the two teens were seated inside that Sage opened her mouth to speak.

"I screwed up," the telepath said bluntly. "I was ... arrogant. I thought I could just swoop in and fix things. I forgot about the human being and ... how could I be so stupid?" Sage closed her eyes and shook her head. When she opened them again she fixed her gaze upon Erin and dropped her voice, "Some of the things I saw in her mind were horrifying. A city heavy with the smell of death and from what I could gather that was before Pathos. It's no small wonder she's so traumatized."

"Poor girl."

[Electra]

Erin was quiet for a few moments, seeming to weigh her words. "It was before Pathos," she agreed finally. "A lot of the bad memories you'll probably find if you look in her head are real, or at least mostly real. Pathos and other members of the Tyranny Syndicate took her memories, our memories, and used them to terrorize her and drive her more crazy. It took me years of therapy to be able to deal with the memories that I have. I don't know what, if anything, is going to help her. I'm just hoping that if we keep trying to help, eventually something will start working."

She sighed, rubbing her forehead with her fingertips. "At least she's happier now. They're taking good care of her, and they say she's calm most of the time, even smiles when she gets a favorite food or TV show. It's got to be some kind of progress."

[April]

Eve shot her friend a concerned look almost, but not quite, kicking herself for not picking up on this sooner. Even prior to her psyhic abilities manifesting, Eve had always been a good judge of character and motivations and the fact that this completely slipped by only highlighted how caught up in her own concerns she was. Not for the first time today the young Martel realized she'd failed someone, this time one of her closest friends.

"I had no idea," Eve said quietly, voice full of sympathy. "Despite what I am, I don't make a habit of prying. But if you ever want to talk, I'm willing to listen. And if you don't want to, I will understand." The telepath looked thoughtful for a moment. "If things are that similar between the two of you, perhaps you can give me a rough idea of what we face?"

The gymnast looked cautiously hopeful.

[Electra]

Erin pursed her lips, reluctant as always to speak about her past. But it was necessary, she reminded herself. She wanted Eve's help, and it wasn't fair to ask her to help in one breath and keep her in the dark with the next. Eve deserved to know what she'd be signing up for. "Her memories will be very dark," she said again, "even before she was picked up by the Syndicate. She lost her whole family. Her mother died violently while protecting her, and that's going to be a vivid one. She was supposed to protect her own younger sister, but she failed, and her sister died a bad death, a slow death. I'm sure you'll see a lot of that as well."

She took a deep breath and went on. "All the rest of her family died, but she didn't see those, so they're not as... as visceral, I guess, and you might not see as much of it. She'll have spent a lot of time fighting zombies, but that's going to be really problematic to sort out. From what I can gather, Pathos took those memories and sort of laid them over reality, so that when they wanted her to fight, they made her see zombies. When Pathos wanted Singularity to protect her, she made her see Megan, the little sister. I'm sure there are a lot of false memories like that, and I don't know how you'd excise them from the real memories, or if you can. I don't know how much she remembers that's real anymore. Sometimes she doesn't seem to remember much at all from one day to the next, maybe because she's crazy, or maybe it's the only way to cope." Erin shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, I'm not a doctor."

[April]

Eve's eyes slowly widened as she listened to her friend speak, heart twisting with pain at the litany of agonies Erin endured. "Both Erins," the mindwalker thought, correcting herself. Eve shook her head slightly, trying to restore her expression into one that was properly neutral, not laced with sympathy and horror. "That will give me an area to start," the young Martel said quietly. "But there is just so much that needs--how are you still sane?" Eve suddenly blurted. "All you've gone through, all she's gone through, that would have destroyed me!"

The telepath suddenly looked embarrassed, closing her mouth before she could say anything further. She was granted a brief reprieve when the helicopter alighted on a tall building in Downtown Freedom's City Center.

[Electra]

Erin winced a little at the indelicate question, but she guessed it was fair to ask. What made one Erin sane when the other was not, why did she get better and Singularity had been destroyed? She wasn't sure she had any answers for that in the grand scheme of things. But maybe even just knowing how she herself had gotten better would be helpful. "I wasn't, for awhile," she said with some difficulty. "There was a period of time that I was just sort of out of my mind, angry and sad and afraid and suicidal."

She shrugged her shoulders uneasily. "That was the same period where our timelines split off, and when they found Singularity. She never had a chance to get better. But I did. I was all alone, but eventually... I don't really know. Eventually I started to work through it, and to want things again, and to see a future again, and that was enough to get me started. And I've had so much therapy and counseling and training since I got here to Prime, and that's done a lot for me. Making friends and meeting Trevor and finishing school doesn't replace everything that was, but it's something new and that I care about. I guess that's what Singularity needs too, sort of. I mean, she needs a lot of mental help, but she needs some reason to care enough to get better, because it's really hard."

[April]

Eve walked in silence while the teen heroes made their way off the roof and into the elevator. When the doors finally closed behind them the young Martel turned and gave her friend another hug. "I'm glad you're here with us, with Trevor. I can't imagine, or don't wish to imagine, what the past year would have been like without either of you," Eve said softly, her French accented soprano tender.

"The things that will probably be dredged up with Singularity will be pretty harsh, I would understand if you don't want to experience them again. But I thank you for all the help and insights you've provided. Maybe we can give her a reason to get better."

The express elevator came to a stop on the ground floor, opening to a spacious lobby. "I called for a car. It will take you to wherever you want to go. I have a lot to think about, I imagine you do too."

[Electra]

Erin shook her head. "I'm responsible for her," she told Eve resolutely. "I knew it would be hard when I started making plans to go and get her, but I did it anyway. She hasn't got any other... well, family, sort of, to look out for her, and at least she knows me. And I just... I have to help her. I couldn't save anyone else." There was a note of pain in those words that Erin had managed to suppress in the rest of her speech. "Maybe I can save her."

With a sigh, Erin looked out into the lobby. "Thanks again for your help. Guess I'll see you at school tomorrow?" She didn't need a car to get home, but she wouldn't mind a ride. It would give her time to think.

[April]

"You'll save her. I know you will." the telepath replied gently. Eve's heart hurt seeing one of her closest friends in such distress, and the carefully controlled mask she held since the return from Blackstone finally slipped. "I have faith in you, and I will be right here with you every step of the way. You're not alone in this, and you will save her."

The young Martel brushed at her eye as she glanced around the blessedly empty lobby and nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow. And Erin, if you ever need anything, don't hesitate."

[Electra]

"You too," Erin replied, turning back before heading for the car. "Even after I graduate, it's not like I'm going to be far away. We should, you know, do stuff sometimes, when we're not trying to do all this hard stuff." She gave Eve a half-smile, then headed out of the lobby. She was drained and headachy from the stress of the encounter at the prison, but she was feeling just a little more hopeful than she had before, and that was progress.