fandomhigh | Library [12-8]

//Not themselves...?//

Jonothon obviously hadn't had the peaches. He'd need a bit more to work with than that, unfortunately.

//What sort of dream, Sunshine?//

"It was a ball of some sort...a masquerade," Raven explained. "I felt as if I belonged there, like it was my home. I could barely remember anything of Fandom...not even you." She hated making that admission, and it made the simmering rage start to burn hotter again that she'd had her mind manipulated in such a way. Her feelings were hers and no one was allowed to touch them in that way.

Make them pay, Daughter....

"I found Bobby there, and Karla as well, and we danced as if there was nothing else that mattered in the world," she went on. "Then I started to remember who I was, but Karla could not. I wanted to take her from there but she refused to come with me. And then I woke up by the labyrinth wall where Sookie and I had fallen asleep."

This conversation had gone weird in all directions, hadn't it? Jono raised his eyebrows a little as he listened. They'd fallen asleep out there?

//Did she have th'same dream?//

It was worth wondering. Stranger things had happened around here, after all.

"She was there as well," Raven said, nodding. "I think perhaps we were poisoned to induce the dream, though it felt so very real." She glanced over to the whiteboard where Shira had posted the Sweet Dreams Peaches recipe she'd found. "We have found that recipe, and there was peach cobbler in the cafeteria that afternoon. I know both Sookie and I had some before we attempted to find a way inside the labyrinth."

Poisoned you, controlled you, are you going to let him get away with that?

Jono glanced toward the recipe as well, and then shook his head a little and reached for one of Raven's hands.

Okay. So there was something out there not only kidnapping students, but drugging them with hallucinogenics, as well.

Charming.

//If you both had it, perhaps there was something more to it,// he offered. Which... wasn't half as reassuring as he'd have liked it to be. But at least it was something more to work with than overactive peach-fuelled imaginations.

Raven squeezed his hand, grateful for the physical contact. "Rinoa had the dream as well, and saw Squall," she said. "He is another of the missing. But something broke the spell and caused us to wake, though it did not free Karla and Bobby and the rest."

//Th'ones who were simply taken,// Jono noted, nodding a little. Bloody hell, poor Rinoa, too. He'd have to check in on her as soon as possible. //Yer holding up alright, luv?//

He had to ask again, yes. 'Stressed' was really an odd word choice for this situation.

"I feel better knowing you are all right," she said, a smile touching her lips. "You were the first I sensed for when I realized something was happening on the island, and it was a great relief to feel you were still close by." Karla missing was bad enough; if Jono had been taken as well, she would have....

Would have what, Daughter? Sat and waited as you are now? Did nothing while these so-called "friends" suffered? If you truly cared for them you would do everything in your power to claim them from whomever has taken them.

She unconsciously gripped Jono's hand harder, trying to block out her father's voice.

Jono spared their hands a glance, and then squeezed back, just lightly.

That wasn't stress.

//I won't be going anywhere,// he said, carefully. //Okay?//

They would have to get their hands on him first, without ended up with their arses lit on fire.

She nodded shakily, taking a deep breath and relaxing her hold on Jono's hand, though she didn't let go. "The labyrinth has affected my ability to teleport," she said. "I think perhaps it is affecting my other gifts as well. It has made me very tense. That is why I reacted as I did when you touched me." No, the labyrinth wasn't to blame for that, but it made for a good excuse.

//Th'labyrinth has been suppressing yer powers?// Well, that was a worrisome bit of news. //Now I've got half a mind to go near to it and see what it does to mine.//

And yet, at the same time... not so much. Not considering his powers were what kept him alive.

Ah, a dilemma.

[I can totally render and ping at the same time. I AM HARDCORE.]

"No!" Raven said, traveling that same line of thought. Her eyes were wide with dismay. "Jono, do not do that! You do not know what it could do to you -- it could be too dangerous. Please, promise me you will not."

[I can...lay on a couch with a cat on my legs and ping at the same time! Behold my hardcore!]

Jono considered that for a moment, and then slowly shook his head.

//I can't promise altogether that I won't,// he noted. //Not so long as our friends are missing.//

His brow crinkled a little. //But.// That was a nice word, wasn't it? //I can promise that I'll hold off, at least keep some distance until I know it won't do me any harm.//

[Well, for what it's worth, I can leave the computer and eat pizza while I render. :D Such hard work.]

"All right," Raven said reluctantly, relieved to get that much of a promise at least.

You can make him obey. You can make him love you. You can make him worship you.

"No!" she gasped before she could stop herself from reacting to her father's taunts. She jerked away from Jono, trying to deny the temptation she felt welling up within her.

... Well, then.

//No?//

That was a worrisome outburst, right there. Somewhere right on up there with the red eyes and the curled lip she'd given him earlier.

//Raven, what's going on?//

This was the first time Trigon had provoked a reaction bigger than a twitch out of her since he'd started whispering in her mind, and she could hear him laughing in pleasure. She dropped her face to one hand, shaking her head. Her emotions were veering wildly, and she could feel her control starting to slip away.

"I am tired," she said, as if that explained everything. "I have gotten very little sleep since this all began."

//Even tired people don't generally yell at shadows,// Jono noted, keeping his tone carefully neutral, for all the good it would do while the rest of him was roiling with concern. //Raven, talk to me.//

She wiped her hand across her eyes and lifted her head to look at him again, trying to think of an excuse to ease his worry. "I have felt uncomfortable since the dream of the masquerade," she said finally. "Karla...did something she should not have."

Jono... still really couldn't see what Karla could possibly have done to have Raven acting so...

... Something.

But he was willing to at least hear Raven out. He might not necessarily believe her, at this point. But he had two ears to listen with.

//Did she, now?//

It was as good excuse as any. "She touched me somewhere she should not have," Raven said. "I had not given her permission, but I know she was not herself. It is not her fault."

... And now the only thing keeping Jono from choking was the fact that he was simply physically unable to do so.

//She wot?//

GOD, KARLA!

Well, it was an effective distraction so far! But the admission was making her cheeks turn red. "Here," she said, bringing her hand up to almost, but not quite, touch her chakra with her fingertips.

Jono suddenly found himself in the middle of one of those moments where he had no idea whether he wanted to boggle more, or laugh, or maybe just facepalm and then stick his head in the sand like an ostrich.

//There?// Well, he'd figured that she didn't wear it all of the time as a fashion statement, but... //What is that all about, anyhow?//

Asking couldn't hurt, right?

"It is my chakra," she explained. "It helps me focus and control my gifts. And...." Her blush deepened. "It is very sensitive. It is part of me, a direct connection to my inner self."

//And she... touched it,// Jono replied, his voice a little on the echoey side.

Okay. He supposed that could... maybe cause Raven to go insane and start jerking about while talking to herself?

He was going to have to shake a stern finger at Karla for molesting Raven's forehead and making her crazy, apparently.

//And that's bothering you?//

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