basts_tail

*click*

Ariel hung up the phone, the sound echoing in the silence. Her hands shook very very slightly, but her mind, strengthened by the throwing off of the Lie so many lived, suppressed it with barely a thought.

Her mothers words….

‘Why do you ask? Did something happen?’ the shake in her voice imperceptible to all but a Mastigos, and her daughter.

Details…. Step by step her mind went back over the conversation.

“Mum…. I need to ask you something. I cannot explain why, but I want the truth.”

“Of course dear, are you in trouble?”

“No, nothing like that, but I’ve come across someone…. And her background is just like mine, and we were born on the same day, and she looks like me….”

Her mother cut her off.

“It’s a coincidence Ariel love. Stop thinking on it.” The shake in her voice was audible though.

“Your voice is shaking, why mum? Did dad – “

Her mother sighs. “You have a non fraternal twin out there. He took her with him….. “

*click*

Standing in the middle of the old run down living room, the petite girl tried to keep the rage under control. From the couch, the old hunter looked at her, as the chaos of Pandemonium spread around her, and then finally settled.

“I need to go to Oklahoma.”

He nods and calls an airline.

1996
In a compound on the outskirts of Lyon

The Master had her raised in a vastly different environment. As he watched her, grow, train, and move, she found she was brilliantly talented in arts that were not directly about destruction. She watched, explored, found things, put things together...

And her flexibility was unrivalled.

As she grew, she became an utterly enchanting child, with dark hair, and blue eyes, slim, lithe and flexible. He fostered her talents, and watched her, thinking.

Once she reached the age of 11, her body rounded out a little, no longer the androgyny of a little girl, but shaped like a woman. She was still slim to the point of boyishness, and frighteningly flexible - something that would not change. He came to see her one day, watching her train. Nothing like the other - in feature, colouring, and behaviour - so incredibly fae, but pretty in a strange, otherworldly way.

She walked into her room, after her training session and shower, and he followed in the chair. She had been disturbed, discovering him sitting in the chair, watching her as she washed the sweat from her training off her - he had studied her, so completely boyish, but with hips and waist, not like a child. He said nothing, but looked ... angry, worried.

"Eight. You have been growing, since I saw you last." She turns, about to get dressed, and he speaks again. "Take that off. I want to see you." Silently she does so, her body naked, as he looks over her. Flat chested as a boy, slim, lithe. Hips starting to curve, the hair that marked her as no longer a child. Not curvy, nothing like his favourite. He speaks again. "Have you begun to bleed? Cramps in your abdomen, blood that will come and go, but no wounds?" She shakes her head, confusedly. He looks relieved and then leaves.

She grabs her clothes, a strange feeling in her - an odd sort of tension that made her want to run.

~~~

He left the compound, to return to Helsinki. As he did so, he noticed in passing that the Cirque was in town.

~~~

2 days later

She had a terrible dream, of fire and crushing earth, smoke, unable to breathe... She was running, trying to get away, and found all the doors were locked. Waking in horror, the feeling not leaving her, she got up and went into the halls. There were only a few people around, and as she walked down the hall, a faint percussive boom was felt...... A moment of suspension, as she looked up, and then twisted, moving fast, to under a support beam, as the concrete collapsed......

An eternity passed, and when she came back to consciousness, she was curled into an impossibly small space, and all around her was the scent of blood, and carbide, and dust. By some miracle she was not badly injured, and after a time, she worked out that there was a small gap where fresh air was getting in. Wriggling, inhaling, moving slowly, she dragged herself through tiny gaps, pausing, stopping to rest. Finally, after hours, she saw sunlight. Hiding, she waited for a chance, watching the men walking around, and as they moved on, she slipped out and ran, sure of her balance, and escaped.

In the distance, she could see the spires of the Grande Chapiteau....

~~~

Helsinki

The Master closed the file, sitting silently. No survivors.