Trinity/FreakAngels AU: A Heart as Cold as Ice.

[aeons_crackshot]

Time has passed, as it tends to do. The Æon Society has recently received word of people going missing in Greenland, and not the kind of people you'd expect to go missing, either. Natives and experienced trackers and wilderness experts have simply gone missing for no readily discernible reason.

That's why Annabelle Newfield and Connor are here to investigate. Mysterious disappearances tend to be their kind of trouble, one way or the other.

A friend of Jake's has dropped them off in a remote village with his plane before haring off on another errand.

Comments

[leadinghome]

It is payback.

Connor presses the point: now he is hopeless.

His wife will never know the truth: she will grieve for a basically different man, and will move on, meet someone nice and be happy.

The people in the city will never know the truth: they will be told of a strange monster that was killed and buried, and the real culprit will be forgotten.

The government will never learn about his actions. Nobody will be touched by fear.

Connor and Annabelle themselves, can simply forget him: reduce the memory to 'strange nasty thing in the backwoods, dead and people safe now'.

Forgotten. Insignificant.

Does not matter if the part about himself and Annabelle is not true, what matters for Connor is that the monster will die, convinced of his own irrelevance.

You are nothing. And now it is time for him to die, with the last crystals used as lances and daggers to snuff him out of existence.

[aeons_crackshot]

The monster gurgles his last breath and expires. The cave is oddly silent to ordinary and extraordinary senses, with the odd feel of Telluric energy gone with the last of the crystals.

It's just him, an unconscious Annabelle, and the dead here now.

[leadinghome]

He is dizzy, and feeling sick, but first... Annabelle. Connor will check her, her injuries, her condition, and do as much as he can to help.

It would be much easier of Miki were there, but his own limited talents will have to do.

[aeons_crackshot]

It's not as bad as it should be. Annabelle has been told that she's too stubborn to die, and fortune tends to dote on her Inspired children.

Annabelle starts to stir when Connor checks her. Quite a few ribs are cracked and there's considerable bruising. Nothing dire or requiring the immediate attention of a doctor.

Connor may learn several very profane and impolite phrases in foreign tongues when Annabelle come to. "Connor?" she says, wincing a bit.

[leadinghome]

"I'm here." Amazing how he can be both pale, and green. "How you feel?" Some distance behind, there is a human form that looks like a porcupine with crystal quills.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Been better, but I've been a hell of a lot worse than this," she says after a moment. Considering that she's been a hairsbreadth from death twice, this may not be all that reassuring.

Annabelle catches sight of the body. "Well, I think we can safely put him in the dead column," she remarks with a shake of her head. "I take it things got ugly once I hit the floor?"

She reaches out a hand to reassure him. She has no idea how apt that last statement is.

[leadinghome]

Connor gives a nod, squeezing her hand. "Can you get up? I need a bit of distance before I sit down to rest."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods and stands up, using the wall to help the process along.

"I'm eager to see the last of this place myself," she replies, one hand reaching up to touch his cheek.

[leadinghome]

Connor helps her, and starts away, supporting Annabelle. "Not too far for now... still need to bury the whole mess, collapse the cave if I can."

"Nobody needs to really know what that bastard was doing here."

[aeons_crackshot]

"No," Annabelle says with a shudder. "I can't believe there's something out there that uses human life energy like that machine they built in Siberia."

This is not a pleasant thought.

"We're not going to tell her, are we?" she asks quietly.

[leadinghome]

"No, nobody." He glances back at the cave. "That bastard will be forgotten.

"Like the coward he was."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Good," Annabelle says firmly.

"We'll need to put the truth in our report," Annabelle points out. "But I agree with not telling anyone else."

"Are we far enough out, do you think?"

[leadinghome]

"I hope so." He needs to sit down and let go of his mental shield, to catch his breath.

But first, he will help Annabelle settle. "You think our guide would scare much if I called him?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"I don't know," Annabelle admits. "On the other hand, between me and Constance, when we find her, we could really use a lift back to town."

Annabelle looks at the sky. "Especially since it looks like a storm is moving in."

[leadinghome]

"Great." Connor takes a deep breath.

John. It's Connor. We need help.

[aeons_crackshot]

John, like most people, is not expecting to have anybody else in his head. The contact comes as a shock, but he recovers fairly quickly.

They've been living in something like a Grimm's fairytale, why shouldn't the heroes have uncanny skills of their own?

Connor? What kind of help, and where are you?

[leadinghome]

North. I can guide you. Annabelle is hurt, I am exhausted, and it looks like there's a storm coming. He pauses. I can put directions in your mind, but only of you let me. There is a woman we rescued hiding on the way here too

He can sense the woman as well, of course.

[aeons_crackshot]

There's going to be a hell of a storm in a few hours, John agrees. I don't think we can afford to waste any time with me floundering around out here...

The sense of John taking a deep breathe. Go ahead and put the directions in my head. I never figured on winding up in a damn fable, he says with a mental snort.

[leadinghome]

Thank you. I hate poking around on people's heads. He will give John directions to Constance and then to himself and Annabelle.

"He's coming. Let me rest a moment and I will bury the cave."

[aeons_crackshot]

John starts on his way, the dogs willing to move forward now that the awful feeling of dread is gone.

"That's good," Annabelle says with a sigh of relief. "I wish I'd brought some explosives," Annabelle grumbles. "Then you wouldn't have to do all the work yourself."

[leadinghome]

"Explosives, and some drums of gasoline, and a ton or two of salt..." Connor will sit and try to relax, which is easier said than done.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle's lips quirk in a grin. "The Carthage approach?" she quips. Annabelle has absorbed bits and pieces of a classical education in self-defense over the last three years.

Possibly a kiss will help him relax?

[leadinghome]

Not too much; he feels dirty right now, and sick from what he had to do. "Something like that."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle puts an arm around him, despite that pain from her ribs.

"I'm sorry, she says quietly. Sorry that he had to do that, sorry that she doesn't know how to help him deal with what he went through just now.

[leadinghome]

He will gently move the arm away, and hold her hands. "You are hurting. We can hug later when you are not hurting."

Not your fault. It... had to be done.