The Tides Turn on the Beach

[Aurora]

'Ow long do you honestly think zat you can keep zis up? The second you forget, I will escape, and I'll make sure you nevair haunt me again.'

"Shutup, shutup, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" The voice seemed to come from nowhere, until a blur appeared in the sky and within seconds formed a body. It was the figure of a very distressed Aurora, her long straight dark hair flying in her face as she hovered a few feet above the ground.

Mystique was walking down the beach, breathing in the cool air and settling her mind after her conversation with Pyro. She had a lot of things to get to this afternoon.

Seeing the blur run past in the distance, Mystique ran after.

Then, Aurora’s expression changed. She still looked afraid, but the tough look in her eyes disappeared, replaced by a slowly-growing look of triumph. Jeanne-Marie had won control. Looking down, she dropped to the sand, and immediately looked around wildly. Jeanne-Marie looked back at the building, then began to walk away from it, breaking into a run at a regular speed rather than the superspeed Aurora was prone to use.

Inside the head of the dark-haired woman (who at that point could not be called a name, for two minds battled for possession of their body), Aurora was screaming. Her scream was different from the scream that had been sounding randomly, night and day, full of self-pity and fear. Aurora’s screams were boiling with anger; the kind of raw anger that leads people to do terrible things.

She put her entire will behind her bloodcurtling screams, fighting against the darkness that had closed her into some small part of her own mind. She couldn’t see through her eyes, and so she didn’t know where her body was going, if it was doing anything at all. She only knew that she didn’t have control of her limbs, and so Jeanne-Marie must.

Still, she screamed, in hopes that for one moment she would push through and alert someone that something was wrong. That everything was wrong. And it had to be put right, for good.

As Mystique realized who it was, she became a bit alarmed. Had something happened?

“Aurora?” She called, slowing a bit. She’d chase someone down if they were a threat, but Mystique seriously doubted this girl was.

“Aurora!” She tried again.

Jeanne-Marie twisted around to see who was yelling for her, her eyes flashing with fear. When she saw the blue woman, her fear grew ten-fold, and she let out a shriek. Turning to face the demon-like enemy, Jeanne-Marie continued to back away.

She clutched at her neck for the cross she’d always worn on a necklace, but Aurora had broken the chain and tossed it aside long ago. “Rester loin, démon!” she cried, lunging away from the blue-skinned woman.

She began to speak in fluent French, clearly reciting something. “O Dieu, qui nous sait être réglé au milieu de tels grands périls…”

Mystique responded in careful French, lifting her hands as if to let the woman know she was not a threat. What was going on with Aurora? She didn’t seem to recognize Mystique at all.

Was that really Aurora?

”I am no demon, and I won’t harm you. All is well,” her French was flawless, as if the woman had been born and raised in the country.

The revelation that the woman spoke her language was both shocking and unnerving. ”You are a mutant, and an evil one,” she said, continuing to speak in French. Her tone was harsh, nearing one that Aurora might use, though she had never spoken to Mystique in such a way.

”I will not stay here; I’m going to be rid of this evil spirit once and for all!” she cried, a slightly crazed look in her eye that was befitting of her more wild other half. The two were more alike than either liked to think.

[mystique]

Mystique laughed. "I'm far from evil, my dear..." she continued in French. "Do you need help? There is no need to run. If you wish to go, I'll help you go."

She edged towards the frightened girl slowly. So this was what her file had meant. Multiple personalities, after a fashion.

Certainly couldn't let her run herself off a cliff in a panic.

[Aurora]

Jeanne-Marie was taken aback at the evil woman's offer to help her. Her heartbeat raced, along with her thoughts, as she looked at Mystique with fear and distrust. She continued to inch away from her, but she had slowed in her attempt to get away. Would this woman really help her leave? Jeanne-Marie had had little contact with dishonest people, having never ventured far from the school in her life. Perhaps they wouldn't keep her against her will.

"I-I want to leave. I want to go...someplace where I can be cured of this," she said shakily, her attempt to stand up to Mystique turning weak as it was spoken.

[mystique]

Mystique offered her hand, palm up.

"Explain it to me. You are trapped in the same body as the young amerian woman?" She looked concerned, as if she wanted for all the world to find a solution to Jeanne-Marie's problem.

"I believe Magneto's old machine could help."

She thought.

"Darling... tell me your name?"

[Aurora]

Jeanne-Marie's eyes looked to Mystique's hand as she offered it to her, but instead of reaching out for it, she drew her hands in toward her stomach. She clearly didn't want to touch the woman, for fear that simply touching Mystique would hurt herself.

She did answer her question, however. "Jeanne-Marie Beaubier," she muttered.

Then, for one second, whether because of some movement that drew her eyes or because for a second Aurora destroyed her concentration, Jeanne-Marie's eyes flicked to the building far down the beach. For that moment, she stopped focusing on Mystique; a fatal mistake.

[mystique]

The expression on Mystique's face shifted in time with the turning of Aurora's head. From imploring gentleness to cold calculation, Mystique's hip tilted backwards- motions too subtle for a girl like Aurora to even notice.

Before she could turn her head back, Mystique had swung a leg up into the air and kicked her square in the temple.

While she was stunned- if not knocked out completely- Mystique pulled her into her arms, pressing Aurora's back to her and trapping her arms behind her.

Whistling loudly, she counted on Gill to have caught this on tape, and leaned hard into the girl, forcing her to walk forward towards the building. Her grip on Aurora was like a vice- there was no way she was getting away. Hopefully, she wouldn't put up too much of a fight either.

[Aurora]

Jeanne-Marie barely had time to turn her head before the pain exploded in her head, with a flash of white light that seared her eyes as she squeezed them shut. A strangled cry escaped her lips as the pain registered in her brain, by which time Mystique was already reaching for her.

She felt hands on her, and with a will that had no doubt been taken from Aurora, she forced herself to straighten up and open her eyes. Tears from the hit spilled over onto her cheeks as she screamed shrilly, forgetting that her cries would bring no one to save her. More likely than not, it would bring more evil mutants to the blue-skinned woman's aid.

Before Aurora could find Mystique's skin with her clawing hands, her arms were pressed behind her. So she settled for pulling away from her; trying to, at least. But Mystique was stronger than Aurora was, and Jeanne-Marie had none of the experience or natural ability that Aurora had. Jeanne-Marie was a soft girl who had spent her life as a nun-in-training. Worshipping God does not build muscles.

She tried anyway, bucking and twisting to escape the firm grip Mystique had on her. Her head was throbbing in pain, and the shrill whistle Mystique gave rang in Jeanne-Marie's ears painfully.

[mystique]

Mystique wrestled the young woman into the building, Gill kindly pushing the button to open the doors.

"Jeanne-Marie. It's okay. Calm down..." she said repeatedly, both in French and English as she dragged her down the hallway.

"Pyro! Python! Ugh..." she finally got frustrated and grabbed the girl by the hair, yanking her head back to arch her spine. It made it much harder to struggle. "Move forward, woman."

Where in the hell WAS Pyro?

Wrapping a leg around Jeanne-Marie's waist and leaning back against the wall, she pushed the code for a bedroom door with a now freed hand and nudged it open.

Forcing the smaller woman into the room, she pushed her onto the bed. "Stay there. When you calm down, we'll talk." Backing out of the room, she almost slammed the door.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out in a sigh, she shook her head.

[Aurora]

As soon as Mystique let go of her, Jeanne-Marie stood and ran for the door. But before she could reach it, it shut and locked in her face. She tried the door handle, then pounded her palm against the door, her sobs clear from the hallway outise. She gave up as the pounding on her head grew worse, and she felt her strength leaving her as the adrenaline dissapated.

She pushed away from the door and went back to the bed, crawling onto it and collapsing. She gathered the sheets into a bundle and hugged them to her chest as she continued to cry loudly.

[Nightingale]

Walking back inside after her talk with the Juggernaut, her cheeks still pink, Angie headed to the kitchen to put down his coffee-bucket and frowned as she heard a door slamming.

While a certain amount of noise was usual for the base, and they did have new recruits - er, new recruit - that weren't necessarily the same as everyone else, Genosha was generally pretty peaceful.

The only one that made that kind of noise was Aurora, really, and she wasn't normally a door-slammer. Mirror-smasher, screamer, sure. Door-slammer, not so much.

With the kind of curiosity that would be dangerous in a less safe environment - Captain Obvious to the rescue! - Angie wandered out toward the sound of the noise. To find Mystique shaking her head outside of a locked room.

Her first thought was that Pyro had gone off the deep end again.

Followed by the thought that Python would probably have been involved if that was the case.

The next thought made her cheeks go pink again, and she pushed them back quickly.

"Is everything ok?"

If there had been another fight, it was entirely possible that someone was hurt and she'd actually be useful. Which was a terrible way to think of it, but still. If there wasn't anything wrong, well - at least she'd asked. Couldn't be faulted for that.

[mystique]

Mystique was relieved to hear the young voice. Not because Angie had any talents that could come to the rescue, but because she was willing to be the girl had experienced Jeanne-Marie before.

"Have you ever dealt with Aurora's... friend?"

She put her hands on her hips, looking irritated, but determined.

"I had to force her in there... I don't know how to get Aurora back out again and Jeanne-Marie just wants to call me a demon." She didn't sound offended by that- after all, she'd heard things like that all herlife.

[Nightingale]

"Oh!"

So that's what it was. It took a moment for Angie to be able to respond, and she realised that she probably looked quite stupid just standing there.

"No, but Aurora has told me about her. You did the right thing - she asked me to kill her if her other half took over in Baltimore, didn't want to be cured."

Thinking for a moment, Angie frowned.

"I know Aurora first came out when she used her powers, so maybe I can convince her to use them or something?"

That could be a very stupid suggestion, though, considering what Aurora had done in Baltimore.

"Is she... hurt?"

Though the young Australian didn't mean to imply anything, she did want to know if Aurora needed help after Mystique had forced her into the room. Things like that didn't always go well, after all, and last time her other personality had come out, there had been mirror smashing and all.

[Jane]

Jane touched her raw skin gently. Underneath the thin layer of red, which had come off as easily as the green - what, was she an Everlasting Gobstopper now? - she'd been... white. Well, not white; pale. Skin-colored. After having scrubbed herself down the first time she'd given up on sticking to green, since obviously her body had other ideas, and had gotten a handful of sand to get the rest of the dead skin off. It was cheaper than pumice and all over the island, and it was no skin of her vines' nose to scoop some up and elevate it to her window so she didn't have to go blotchily down to the beach in her towel. Win-win situation.

Except that now her skin was a fair shell-pink mixed with creamy white, a throwback to her long-ago Slavic heritage. Her hair had straightened out of a sudden as well, dirty-blonde and manageable. It was the middle of summer. It wasn't supposed to be manageable until -

Suddenly it hit her. They'd crossed the equator.

Stopping dead in a doorway of her room, Jane burst out laughing at herself.

Thank God she hadn't contracted some random mutant disease, anyway. She really didn't want to die yet. And if winter was here already, she could emerge out onto the mainland and go buy herself some clothes that actually fit.

Despite the whole... Dead Man thing, her day was looking up. She should go find Angie so she could get the chunk of him out of her, and then she'd be fine. Except for the memory of the almost-kiss that would haunt her dreams until she died, but not in the good way.

Stepping out into the hallway, Jane found that she didn't have to go far; she heard voices around the slight bend that was the quarters-hall, and she trotted down it to find Angie and Mystique standing in front of a shut and locked door, talking.

Not a good sign. It looked like the kind of locked where someone was inside.

Pulling her for-once-smooth hair over one shoulder and threading her fingers through it now that they actually slid through, Jane quickened her pace over to the two women.

"Hey," she said. "Pyro crack up again?"