4/14 Instance: Hope Never Dies (Until We Do)

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tears~fall~like~glass
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
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Location: Indiana

4/14 Instance: Hope Never Dies (Until We Do)

Post by tears~fall~like~glass »

Timelined: Shortly After Affirmation


<Cecilia> Cecilia pulled her cellphone out and sat on the windowsill of her dorm room studying the grounds below through the screen of the partially opened window, since she had a few minutes on her hands she could at least do something useful and see if Hope was doing alright. [Hey, it's Cee. Are you still alive and kicking?].

<Hope> Jumping a bit at her phone, Hope picked it up and smirked when she saw the message. [Indeed I am. And still managing to avoid SWORD and SHIELD. They definitely don't earn their paycheques.]

<Cecilia> Cecilia rolled her eyes at that. [Nice work. So any luck finding John and Jamie? Or would you like an update on how our search is going?]

<Hope> [No sign of Johnny or Jamie yet. What have you found?]

<Cecilia> [A whole lot of nothing - but that's not surprising. We're undermanned and most people we do have that are still remotely functional are incompetent as all hell.]

<Cecilia> [We've found a few dead old guys from the Hellfire club. Most of them inner circle or damn close to it. Last mission ended with us being attacked by the person responsible. Multiple injuries. Major cluster-fuck.]

<Hope> [Who was it then?]

<Cecilia> [No-one we know. Asian woman - have to look into that more.] Cecilia thought a moment, then typed in another message. [Why don't you come back? We need the help really badly.]

<Hope> [I am helping. We will find them and Kraven.]

<Cecilia> [How exactly are you doing that?] Cecilia typed back. [Wandering the streets aimlessly? If Xavier couldn't locate John what makes you think you can?]

<Hope> [Because I fucking will. That's how.]

<Cecilia> Of course, Cecilia thought, because being the fucking determinator always got results. [It's not safe with Ed.] She typed instead. [Do you know he electrocuted Cess before he left? That he strangled me until I nearly passed out and threatened to decapitate me? He only stopped 'cause I kneecapped him.]

<Cecilia> [He's likely taking orders from the voices in his head, not acting on any rationality. He's going to get himself killed and if you're not careful he'll bring you down with him.]

<Hope> [He's not a loose cannon on fire. He and I have a very similar goal. Cess tried to stop him. Did you? And you don't know what it's like with the voice in the head. I actually do.]

<Cecilia> [No, I tried to talk to him. Get him to think about what he was doing. Despite what others think I'm not that unreasonable.] Unlike you, Cecilia thought. [I've never had a voice in my head, it's true. But I know what it's like to have PTSD and paranoia. To be depressed.]

<Cecilia> [More to the point. I know exactly how it feels to lose someone you love to murder.]

<Hope> [Cee, you're amazing... but this is my fight. Johnny pulled me out of Alaska. Johnny saved me from Apocalypse. I'm not giving up on him and the X-men aren't serious enough to do this. If you get a lead let me know. I'll do the same.]

<Cecilia> [...I appreciate that.] Cecilia felt her pride sting. [Serious enough? Lady, I've got no fucking free time with all the patrols I'm on. I'm pulling double my weight here with so many people gone! What the fuck do you think I do all day? Sit on my ass and twiddle my thumbs? I want to find John as much as you do!]

<Hope> [And what were we doing before I left?]

<Cecilia> [The same fucking thing, except then we had more people. Since you and Ed left, we've lost Laura and Hisako to Ireland. Jean's incapacitated. Sue's an unreasonable wreck. Now Mayday, Mel and Rachel are in the medlab. What the hell am I supposed to do?!]

<Hope> [Come join us haha!]

<Cecilia> Cecilia felt her blood pressure spike. [I'm not going to baby you, Hope. Not like the others. The chances of John being alive after almost three weeks are almost nil. This is a statistically proven fact. The critical time - the first 24 hours - has passed. We're more likely to find him dead than alive.]

<Cecilia> [I can't join you...I won't. I'm not going to become the next X-Force. I've learned from others mistakes.]

<Hope> [He's not fucking dead you twit! We found a fucking video of him killing Jamie's Dupes. He's ALIVE. So take your statistics and shove them. I'm finding him. I'll save him.]

<Cecilia> Cecilia blinked at this text. This was not consistent with their patrols where burned corpses were turning up fewer and farther in between. [Does the video have a timestamp? We knew John was being used to cook corpses from the bodies we found on patrols. Could you send us it?]

<Hope> Hope attached the url to her. [Watch it at your own risk. It's... gruesome...]

<Cecilia> Cecilia opened her shitty laptop and typed in the url. Tears began to slip down her face as she watched, her face almost as agonized as Jamie's dupes as their flesh melted and their screams echoed off the walls of the dungeon they were being kept in.

<Cecilia> It was awhile before she managed to calm down enough to watch the video again...then again...and again. Searching for any clues - clocks, calendars, anything to find a date. There was no timestamp. [Hope...has it occurred to you this video could've been made weeks ago? Or doctored?]

<Hope> [You can take your pessimism and shove it, Cee. If you have nothing more productive to do than tell me to give up hope I don't want to hear it. Until I find a body, he's alive.]

<Cecilia> [Hope, listen to me. Hundreds of people every year go missing. Their bodies are never found. There is no closure. The only way we may find out is by questioning the people responsible. As a person who never had any justice, I am begging you. Don't kill them before we can question them.]

<Cecilia> [I'm trying to be realistic. If we never find John I don't want you to spend the rest of your life wondering. Hope never dies...not until we do. This is a good thing sometimes...but in this case it's not. I want you to have some closure I never had. If you kill these people we may never know. Death is too good for them.]

<Hope> [Guess it's a race then. May the best one win.]

<Cecilia> Cecilia stared at the phone grimly. [Just know, if it comes down to it, we will stop you. Both of you. We'll have to. Until then it's not too late to come back.]

<Hope> [You are welcome to try, sweetcheeks.]

<Cecilia> [I don't try. I do. Just don't say I didn't warn you.] Cecilia typed before snapping her phone shut. They thought they were going to take on the entire team and win? Well, good luck with that. She stood up and picked up her laptop. She needed to talk to someone in charge. They needed to see this video.
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