Bad feelings were something Caitlin had become accustom to lately. She had a friend that once said she woke up in the middle of the night before every Kaiju attack.
This was something similar. It made her casual walk down to the lab a slightly brisker jaunt, and then a run. Then the gunfire made her pick up the pace. She saw the J-Tech soldier and grabbed his gun from him. He seemed to be in shock, but her attention once the gun was in hand was at the woman seizing on the floor.
Like it wasn't her own. It wasn't her own skin, she wanted to remove it, but clawing at it only made it bleed. Not yet. She itched the scales on the back of her neck, the sharp claws having no real effect on the hard scaley surface. She was distracted only for a second before she remembered what the Masters told her.
She could smell Becket. Before it was just the faint smell of old paper, metal, just something you'd expect a pilot to smell like but now it was so much more specific. The hints of leather, the smell of something sweet like candy. It was very specifically Raleigh. Very specifically her target.
Findhuntkill
Findhuntkill
The instructions were specific. The halls were too empty for her to worry about anyone else. Though it would be their misfortune to cross her path now. She spotted him, and made no hesitation to leap at him, hissing.
She's hunting, sort of, moving around the lab like a confused animal, she's knocked over one of the desks and there are papers everywhere and she's shuffling through them, climbing up on one of the desks crouching down and growling lowly.
Caitlin smiled, though she’s distracted by the developments of the woman, “Shame we couldn’t meet on better circumstances, Miss Kim.” she exhaled, “How are you feeling today? Mentally, you consciousness?”
She winced, looking up at the woman through one eye, "It sounds like a lot of static..." Soyon's shoulders become lax. "The more I try to ignore it the louder it gets, I...I can't sleep I'm afraid-" Soyon stopped herself, looking up at Lightcap.
The Vicodin had put her to ease long enough for her to fall asleep. Though the Shatterdome had been looking for her, she found herself a cozy place inside the lab where she was hidden from view. She managed to fall asleep.
But the hive mind was empty, quiet for the most part and she felt like she was wandering around in an empty room. As her panic increased her focus and visions became tainted again.
hunthunthuntfindsearchdestroy.
She recognized some of the memories before. Knifehead, Leatherback.Some of the bigger Kaiju but these were different. These were very different. These were small, pack mentality, moving in a formation to reach a target. She felt the familiarity of the entire area.
And then the screaming started. Faces she recognized. Herc Hensen barking orders and then she met face to face with the frozen Hermann and Newt in the middle of the compound. Gripping one another's hands, admitting defeat as they closed their eyes.
"No...no!" she screamed into the emptiness.
"No!" she was awake, and had flipped Newton's desk over in her unconscious state. She stood shakily, not realizing her own strength, she put the desk back right, picked up some of the pieces but eventually sank to her knees, face in the palm of her hands.
She could feel metal and pain, screeching to life and screaming into death. If she just let go she could drown, let the monster hold her under and she could be free. freedomfreei want tobe free. But they wouldn't let her. There was no surrender, only death. She couldn't surrender. She couldn't have her freedom unless it was victory. Even in death she'd be haunted by the memories of those who came before her.
"S...soyon!?"
"Don't be foolish, Newton-... Miss Kim?"
"...Newton..." Soyon's dream was interrupted the visions of drowning and fighting swirled down to a black room, with the two drifters standing in the center. "Doctor..." she hadn't dreamed of them before... she hadn't dreamed at all since forever.
"Impossible the hive-"
"Mind is impenetrable by-"
"Normal humans, Soyon-"
"Did you-"
"drift with-"
"a kaiju?!"
They finished one another's sentences like her drifters. She looked weakly at the two of them, looking from one to the other as they talked. She frowned, swallowing. The hive?
"I was bit..." her voice wavered in the echoing space, it was small and child like, "I got bit, it's the hybrids- I..."
"Soyon..." the two of them looked concerned and moved forward, both of them seemed so calm. Unlike her drifters, sane almost. In the hive, she supposed, they were sane. It was in the real world that they...
"It's fine...someone is working...on figuring it out. I'll be okay..." The two drifters didn't seem convinced. Though they weren't objecting to getting to talking to her now. The hive mind was concepts and memories, but they managed to communicate to her clearly.
"We're just glad-" Hermann started,
"That you're safe, for the most part at least... besides you being a hybrid now." Newt agreed.
"...I know why... you sent me through the rift." they were standing in front of one another. Soyon could almost reach out and touch them, "You did it for me..."
"We figured-" Newt grinned sheepishly.
"-you would figure it out." Hermann exhaled with a fond smile.
"Are....are you guys okay?" she wanted...so badly to touch them but she was in a dream. She gripped the air.
"Fine...sort of...not the same really you know, different..." Newt messed up his hair further, looking at Hermann, "We manage, we have-"
"Each other." Hermann smiled flatly, "Not the best situation, but worth your freedom. We'll manage, Miss Kim." The doctor nodded, straightening. There was suddenly a jarr in their posture, they looked over their shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Soyon looked alert as well.
"We have to go," Hermann frowned, "Something is happening at the camp..."
Soyon could hear the screaming, she felt sick all of a sudden. She stepped forward but the two drifters were already out of reach.
"Don't go!"
"Be brave, Soyon..." the two muttered, looking over their shoulder. She could hear Herc trying to shake the drifters awake. She could hear screaming and then nothing.
Her eyes shot open, staring at the wired base of the bed...
She had felt sick for the longest time. She was running a fever, sweating, yet she felt cold. She was on her own because they couldn't see her. But they brought her the sword. She wouldn't be without it ever again.
She looked at the scars on her hands, feeling her heart race in her chest.
"Check." Hermann's voice rattled in the back of her head, "Just to be sure, my dear, it's only fair."
She pulled her sword from it's sheath.
"Be careful it's sharp." Newton's voice echoed after she pulled her sword. She almost rolled her eyes but brought the blade to her hand over one of the many scars. She paused, finding herself unable to do it.
"Soyon?" Herman's voice irked with confusion.
"...Sorry." she muttered and gripped the blade tightly, feeling the familiar sting. She opened her palm and dropped the sword with a loud clatter.
Her blood was blue.
She panicked, wiping the blood on the sheets and her patient gown. She fell back, running her non injured hand through her hair, curling up into herself.
"Soyon..." the worried voices of the drifters came back.
"I-I can't. I can't." she whispered looking to the discarded sword.
"Don't do this." the worry in their voices rose ten fold.
"I have to...I-I have to..." she reached for the sword shakily. "I'm n-not...a hybrid." she tried to convince herself, she turned her sword on herself.
"Soyon don't be crazy"
"I-I can't. I can't. I won't."
"We'll figure it out don't be crazy!"
"I-I won't- I won't-" she breathed through a terrified sob. She gripped the sword, unable to follow through with her action.
"This isn't the only way." she could have sword she felt someone take her hands and make her put down the sword. "We'll figure this out..."
Soyon covered her face, starting to cry heavier. Terrified was only the beginning of it.
