Room 615 of the Fairmont Orchid, Hawaii, Thursday, Early Evening

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa was nervous, as she sat down on the edge of Sookie's bed. She was letting someone into her head. Willingly. The thought of it made her want to flee the room, in panic.

She took a deep breath and reminded herself that this had been her idea. Well. Sookie's, originally, but she'd been the one to seek her out about it, today. And if this helped, maybe she'd get some actual, restful sleep. It had been fragments and nightmares ever since the Lunatic Pandora.

"You're sure Bobby won't mind?" Rinoa asked. Since he was being left out of his room for a few hours. Clearly, that would be a traumatic experience for him. And one that meant they should cancel the entire experiment.

(For one. Bobby modded out with permission zomg. That Sookie is going into Rinoa's head is fine for broadcast, but any details that might come out should please be NFB?)

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[angelo_wings]

[[ It's perfect ]], Rinoa thought, a smile playing across her lips. [[ Just how I remembered it. ]]

She took a deep breath, savoring the crisp air and feeling the knot in her stomach untangle itself a bit more.

[[ So I just ... stay here? ]] she asked.

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

<< Stay here, >> Sookie agreed, manifesting briefly as a glowing, faint form in Rinoa's mental field. << I'm going into your subconscious while you relax. >>

And with that, she pressed forward, deeper into Rinoa's brain, down through the layers of her conscious mind until the inky threads of subconscious slid their way around her, familiar as ever.

Images sprang out at her, vague and threadlike, and Sookie left those. It was the concrete that she was seeking out, since that was what would be plaguing Rinoa's sleep. She wandered, gold and flickering, tucking black tendrils in as she went until she found something haunting enough to explain the other girl's distress.

It didn't take long. A large figure loomed out at her from the shadows, seemingly covered in tattoos and encircled by a halo of gold metal. The sensation of a knife to her throat, of being coerced, of being forced struck Sookie, and the person -- the creature before her smiled. She pressed on, her hands glowing as she manipulated a new shadow, a smoky curtain she could draw across the memory. Rinoa wouldn't see the monster until she thought of it on her own. It wouldn't sneak out of the darkness to peer into her dreams.

[angelo_wings]

It should have bothered Rinoa that Sookie was exploring her mind without her, but somehow, here, it didn't. There were shields, and she was safe.

The petals danced gently in the breeze. She reached a hand out to catch one, a flat pink petal landing squarely in her palm. She closed her hand over it ... and opened it again, to reveal a perfect white feather.

The wind caught the feather, lifting it to soar in the sky, and Rinoa smiled.

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

Sookie meandered through Rinoa's subconscious, winding her way through memories and thoughts and ignoring things that didn't seem her business. She'd hidden the boy with the knife behind a shadow, too, guessing that was the ex who'd done the betraying.

She'd done a little more tidying before something twinged in the back of Sookie's brain, tugging at her senses to tell her things were wrong. Not an immediate threat, but a sort of static noise, buzzing at her telepathy like a fly trying to go through a screen door.

She moved forward through the mist quickly, looking for anything that didn't look healthy. As she crept through Rinoa's subconscious, the feeling of unrest persisted, escalating -- she'd adjusted to how her friend's mind felt, but this was foreign, wrong.

It took another few moments before she found what she was looking for: a black wall, emanating a buzz of dread that set off all of Sookie's instincts as a telepath. Something was here, where it shouldn't be. It was like finding Emma in Bobby's brain -- when she moved forward to press a glowing hand to the wall, it shifted slightly under her touch before strengthening. She could try to remove it by force, but she'd risk hurting Rinoa in the process.

It wasn't something she could attempt. But there was something bad here. Something evil and insidious and black and eating at Rinoa.

I'm not that strong a telepath, she'd said, and as much as she needed to remove this, to save Rinoa, she couldn't. Karla could. Emma might. Sookie wasn't good enough to save her friend today, not without help. The only thing now was to warn it.

This was Rinoa's mind, but right now, it was Sookie's mindscape, too. She stared at the wall, her psychic presence glowing brighter and larger, and her hands flickered purple, sending sparks up her arms. She could manipulate reality as needed here, to scare the...thing.

<< Get out, >> she hissed, through Rinoa's subconscious as she pressed violet hands to the wall, lightning sparkling against it. << I know you're here, and you need to leave now. >>

She couldn't tell how effective it was; the wall stayed the same, save for strengthening under her touch. She drew back, letting her lightning fade away, and carefully, gently, began to push back to Rinoa's conscious mind.

<< All done, honey, >> she called, flickering into the field again. She'd tell her about the wall in a second. She wasn't going to pollute this place with that knowledge.

[angelo_wings]

The petals were still swirling, and Rinoa was still practicing her meditation -- deep breathing, and finding a calm center within herself. But something had felt ... wrong, there, for a few moments. Unsettling, and almost nauseating. She was trying to put that out of her mind.

It seemed to be fading, and the sharp spike that had been plaguing her head along with it. She felt more relaxed than she had in weeks.

[[ Welcome back, ]] she said, trying for a light tone. [[ I've been playing with petals and feathers. Sorry I couldn't be more help. ]]

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

Sookie began tugging her shields away, also trying for levity. << You don't need to help, hon. It's pretty easy for me to do. >>

With Rinoa's shields nearly extracted from her own, Sookie began to pull out entirely. << I'm getting out of your head, okay? >>

And with that, she patched up Rinoa's shields a little bit before retreating back into her own mind. "Feel any better?" she asked softly, aloud. Her actual voice felt unfamiliar, too loud.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa kept her eyes closed, trying to capture that one last moment -- the calm of the field, and the petals swirling -- in her mind. Finally, she opened them again.

"Yeah," she said, nodding. She had had to clear her throat to remember to use her voice, and not think it towards Sookie. "I do. It's all a little less ... heavy, right now."

She offered a quick smile. "Thank you. I'm sorry I was so ... weird about it, before."

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

"No worries," she said, smiling right back. "And I'm glad it's weighing on you less -- that's the idea. Nothing's gone. It's just...not going to pop out when you're not expecting."

She fidgeted a little, trying to decide what to tell Rinoa, if anything. "Um. Could you feel anything when I was down there?"

Maybe that'd give her a clue as to what to do. Maybe it was Rinoa's powers, that darker side of herself, and Sookie was overreacting.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa frowned, sensing there was something ... not entirely right.

"Near the end," she said, hating to admit that out loud. "I felt ... sick. Like something was knotted up in my stomach. It went away again."

The last bit was said as if that meant everything was, therefore, fine. Really.

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

"Here's the thing," Sookie said carefully, hissing a little air through her teeth. "I...found something down there. In your mind. Something dark, and bad. I think someone's in your brain, Rinoa. It was a lot like another time when...I had to get someone out of someone else's brain. And I'm not strong enough to take it out, myself, but we need to get someone in there who can."

[angelo_wings]

And at that, Rinoa seemed to wilt. She slumped over, head in her hands, and shook for a few seconds.

She wasn't imagining it. She wasn't. She knew it. She knew it. Oh dear Hyne, Ultimecia. She was back. She was back and she was going to -- she was trying to get in and -- and --

"N-no," she said. She shook her head violently. "Please."

More people diving in after her. Some epic, scarring battle on her subconscious, and for what? If they evicted Ultimecia, she'd end up back in the future, at which point, she could just as easily send herself into the present again. Into Rinoa's mind. Over and over and over again. Until Rinoa broke, or ... or until someone sealed her.

She closed her eyes, focusing all her energy on not throwing up on Sookie's bed.

"It's ... I know what that is," she lied, weakly. "It's left over from ... from what happened. From being junctioned, to A-Adel. So there are .... bits of her left. That's all. But she's ... dead. So she's not a threat, any more."

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

To say Sookie didn't believe her would be putting it very mildly. But she wasn't going to push, her concern aside. "Okay," she said carefully. "You think she left pieces behind? And that's what I found?"

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa nodded, unable to meet her friend's eyes. "She ... meshed us together, somehow," she said. Which happened to be true. "I just ..."

She couldn't keep up the pretense, but she couldn't let the truth slip, either. And now she was lying to a friend who had been helping her. Everything was wrong. She wasn't sure it could be right again, either.

"You can't tell Squall," she said, abruptly. "Please?"

Squall would ... he wouldn't understand. He was SeeD. He belonged with Garden. He'd listen to Cid, and Quistis, and everyone else. It was too risky. She knew that, instinctively.

She didn't think to question the source of that 'instinct,' either.

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

And now she believed her even less, particularly with that request. "I...okay, but why not?" she asked softly. "Can we get those pieces of her out? I'll need a stronger telepath to help me, or maybe...I don't know, there's magic from your world that can help? But why can't we tell Squall?"

[angelo_wings]

"He's ... it's SeeD," she said, taking a deep breath. "It's just ... he's ... his loyalties are going to be messy, for this. It's complicated."

She didn't even understand all of it.

"I'll tell him, eventually. If it's safe. They ... they don't trust Sorceresses, back home. There are groups against us. I'd be putting him in a horrible position and I ... I can't."

There. That was it. She'd be putting him in a bad position. That must be it; it felt right. Good.

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

"Sweetie, I'm sure your loyalties lie with you," Sookie said, frowning at her. "It's not like he doesn't know what you are, right?"

[angelo_wings]

"He knows," she said. "He does. But he hasn't thought this through. It's going to be ... it's messy. Cid was Edea's knight. And Cid had to lead all of Garden against her. When it was bad. Garden is his family. It won't ... I can't ..."

He would hurt her. He would turn against her. He wanted to destroy her. She knew that, in a way she never had before. She couldn't possibly trust him. Anyone but him.