CarlyleMathew Frakes & Daniela Steele
Location: Ashford Institute Common Room
Matt stood there examining the playing field. If Josh brought the armored unit up the left side even two more inches he would flank Matt’s Goliath. More than likely Josh was trusting in the dice though to win the day. It would be risky but Matt had already determined that Josh preferred risky tactics and had come to rely on that.
“Good luck, you sure want to do that? The odds aren’t exactly in your favor.” Matt offered a way out but Josh just nodded and went to the assault phase. They had been playing for four hours already.
Daniela had lost track of the woman she was following. As she ran by one of the open doors, she stopped as she saw a familiar face. “Matt!” She called out cheerfully as she ran in and saw that he was playing some sort of miniature game with little figures. Daniela was barely able to stand still as she stared at the little figures. “Oh! I recognize that one! It’s a little alien guy!” She stopped for a moment and looked around curiously as though she was unsure as to how she had gotten into the room. “Hey, was this room always here? Don’t really remember it.”
Matt looked up from the game. Seeing the puzzled look on Daniela’s face, he turned to Josh “Uh Josh I’m willing to call it here. Good game. Just looks like my friend here needs me.” Josh signed “No worries.” and started packing up.
“Daniela you alright? Yeah it’s the common room. Always been here. You need to eat or talk or talk and eat? What’s going on?”
Daniela once again paused and looked around for a moment as though she didn’t know what was going on. She stared at Matt with a slightly off smile. The smile vanished a moment later as tears began to form in her eyes and her mouth opened but no sound emerged as her arms and hands began to glow brighter and brighter as though her abilities were beginning to emerge. “M-Matt...Help me.”
Matt cautiously approached Daniela, his voice mildly placating. “uhm … Sparkles … if you zap me I will be quite upset. Now calm down and talk to me.” Checking that his gloves were on he tried to give Daniela a reassuring hug.
Daniela looked at Matt as she started laughing hysterically and sobbing heavily at the same time. “C-Can’t control it this time! Can’t stop it! S-Somethings wrong!” She screamed as a moment later, massive twin blasts of electricity blasted out from her hands in a display of power beyond her control. She barely had enough time to turn away from Matt and direct one of the blasts at an electrical outlet and the other hit a window behind them and shattered the window and blasted the glass outward.
Matt’s eyes widened. As the lights went out, it became apparent that Daniela couldn’t stop this on her own. Matt only knew one way to stop her. Taking off his glove he reached out to grab her arm just above the glow. Both of them seemed to stop frozen in place. Matt’s Aura expanded, changing the surroundings to match the memory of Daniela’s most vividly traumatic moment. Matt had no control over what was seen and he considered it an invasion of privacy but there was no choice. He could not allow her to destroy the room. Besides, his miniatures were in danger.
Daniela looked around in horror as the familiar sight and sounds that still haunted her dreams seemingly began to appear all around her. She could see the destroyed van crushed beneath the debris of the damaged building and see Andrea’s hand limply hanging out from the side. She could hear the battle raging around her as villains and so-called ‘heroes’ continued to duke it out in the middle of the crowded street. And oddly enough, she could see herself trapped beneath the power pole screaming in fear as the two groups fought it out, regardless of the civilian casualties that would ensue. “No...NO!” She screamed over in both rage and terror as she watched as the aspiring heroes were cut down and one of the surviving villains loomed over her with the sadistic smile that haunted her nightmares still. “No survivors.” He said to the woman under the power pole with a sadistic smile as Daniela standing next to Matt, began sobbing once again. “Why? Why am I here?!”
“This must be what’s bothering you. Some unresolved issue or something. We can only observe though.” Matt said as the scene played out before him. He couldn’t help but notice that the “heroes” didn’t work together and paid little mind to their surroundings. He watched the real Daniela as she watched on in horror. What is it about this moment? Yes, it is traumatic losing a friend would be, but there seems to be something I am missing. Matt spotted someone else trying to run from the scene. Then watched as a live wire jumped around and headed towards the trapped Daniela.
“Because you're a murderer!” Daniela’s disembodied voice came from nowhere.
Daniela could only watch as tears began to run down her face once again as the wire touched her back and a moment later, the trapped Daniela’s eyes immediately flashed a blinding yellow as a massive blast of electricity erupted from her straight into her would-be-killer and she could only watch as as his body seemingly turned a charred black in front of her. Mere moments later, arcs of electricity shot out from her glowing form. She forced herself to watch as one of the blasts struck Hannah directly in the back as she tried running away and two electrical blasts slammed into nearby civilians who were trying to run away.
“You deserve to rot in a cell for the rest of your miserable life for what you did! You killed the only two who understood you! Your only two friends!”
“I didn’t mean to kill them!” She sobbed
Matt’s mental presence went to hug Daniela. “You need to stop beating yourself up. None of this was in your control. It was unfortunate but there was nothing else you could do.” Matt looked around and sympathetically chuckled. “You had no more control over that, than I have over this. Which by the way is probably going to repeat if you don’t forgive yourself at least a little.”
"What right do you have to think you deserve forgiveness?!" Daniela’s disembodied voice demanded in an accusing scream.
Daniela shook her head as the tears began to slowly stop. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to fully accept it. I didn’t want to hurt anyone...I just wanted to have a road trip with my friends and look how it ended.” She said quietly as she fell to her knees and shook her head. “Those four deaths will always be with me.”
Matt put a finger on Daniela’s mouth. “Of course they will, no one is asking you to forget them, but you need to realise that you are not to blame for those deaths. It is like being in a car accident as a passenger and blaming yourself for surviving. Your body did what it had to do to survive. The fact that it bothers you this much and you have held onto it for so long tells me that much. I trust you enough to literally be inside your head. Now that should tell you something.”
Daniela looked over the battleground and looked at the various casualties and shook her head after a moment. She took a deep breath and struggled to express herself for a few moments as everything seemed to slow down for her for a moment. “Goodbye.” She said quietly.
As Matt’s Aura receded feeling came back into his body. Josh stood there wide eyed. Neither Matt nor Daniela were even aware he was still there until now. Josh’s hands flashed out at Matt.
“Slow down Josh I’m still learning.” Matt exclaimed as he put his glove back on. “I see the lights are still out. I think she is alright for now.”
