Ghost in the Darkness (Freya)

[Rory Ashe]

Darkness surrounded the castle that served as a base for the Exiles, night had fallen and a thick fog surrounded the building. It could easily be described as a haunting scene, however, for most people who had any brains then you knew it wasn't the fog that you should worry about but the strange happenings in the castle. Tonight though, it WAS what was in the fog that should be worried about. A soft breeze moved the fog slightly, and if one was looking closely you could just barely make out the softest glow that looked somewhat like two red eyes in the darkness.

The dark figure stood calmly in the fog, looking through it as if it didn't even exist, staring off into the distance at the castle. The red eyes actually were glowing, and were set into a pitch black, solid, mask. The mask was featurless except for the eyes themselves, and the fact that on the front of the mask was a white skull painted on, with the red eyes sitting perfectly where the sockets were. The rest of the figure was covered in a similiarly black body suit, covered with pieces of what looked like hard plastic, but were much more than that. The figure itself was large, standing over six feet and built very large as well, he would have been an intimidating site if he had been visible.

Staring through the fog the man touched the side of the helmet/mask and was immediately able to see the castle in the distance as if the fog wasn't there. Touching the side of the helmet again cut through the walls of the castle, looking for heat signatures only, and he saw only one... Perfect, it was the one he was looking for as well. For all intent and purposes, this man looked sinister, but beneath the helmet was a familiar Irishman. At least familiar to the one person inside the castle, it was Rory.

It had been almost four months since he had left the mansion with little explanation of where he was going. All he said was he had loose ends to tie up, and left with little more than a suitcase and a kiss goodbye to Freya; promising he would return. Since then he hadn't contacted her once, or anyone for that matter. Now, however, with his business taken care of, it was time to return. He had a feeling that Freya had left the mansion, considering she only stayed there for him, and probably returned home and found out his assumption to be correct after showing up in front of the Exiles castle with her alone inside.

Then suddenly Rory sprinted toward the castle, with a flick of his hands, sharp and short claws extended from each finger on both hands; combined with the all black of his costume and intimidating war paint on the mask, he really did look like some sort of monster. As he came close to the castle he leapt through the air and sunk the claws into the rock of the building, then began scaling it almost like a spider, making less sound than a mouse. All the while he climbed toward the nearest open window, and once there, slipped in without a sound.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

It wasn't that she hated the school, but with Rory gone.... She didn't find any real... Reason to stay like she had before. At first, she'd just moved back to the new hotel where Tari was staying, but even staying that close to the school drove her mad. Finally, she'd decided to split her time between the school and France. The busier she stayed, the less she thought about Rory being gone. So, she spent a week at the hotel with Tari, then another in France, then back to the hotel, back to France.... After three months though she'd finally just decided to stay in France. Tari was handling matters at the school, so the least she could do was keep things running at the Castle.

The longer she spent alone in the Castle though.... the lonelier she got. She managed to keep herself busy during the day, but as soon as the sun was down everything seemed to come crashing back down on her. Had she ever been this alone? At first she'd always been with Tari, her sister almost never leaving her side. And when Rory had been around, she'd almost always been at his...

Like most nights, the Castle was empty, except for Freya. It was a horrible night as well, a thick fog making it near impossible to see into the night. It didn't help Freya's mood. She liked knowing what was out there. She was territorial in that way, never wanting to let anyone or anything sneak up on the building. So, Freya avoided the windows. If she looked out any, she'd only make herself even more annoyed.

The chamber she was in was near pitch black except for the dying fire in the middle of the room. All the furniture had been pushed out of the way so it didn’t accidentally catch on fire, but with Freya in the room… There was little to worry about. The fire probably only had a few more minutes to live anyway. Why? The fire would only last as long as Freya was awake. As it was, Freya was curled up on one of the couches, her head resting on one of the arms. Her eyes were closed, her breathing slow. She wasn't quite asleep though...

[Rory Ashe]

Slowly the dark figure moved through the building, crawling along the ceiling without a sound. The castle was large, but thanks to the helmet he was wearing, he was able to keep his eyes on the heat signature of Freya. Normally being able to tell who a person was by their body heat was possible, but very hard. With Freya, however, she glowed like a candle in the dark; it was always obvious which one she was.

Finally the figure was moving slowly along the ceiling of the living room, stopping above Freya for a moment. He looked down at her, unable to keep from smiling, he wanted to just immediately jump down and kiss her, but refrained. Was Rory a bit crazy for preferring to scare her awake? Perhaps, but no one ever made the accusation the he was sane.

It had been far too long since he last saw her, he had almost forgotten just how beautiful she was as he looked down on her. Though, he knew she wouldn't recognize him. Not in the almost demonic suit he was wearing. In fact, she had never seen this suit at all, it was Agency issued back when Rory was known better as Phantom. It was this suit that made him so lethal, or, at least more lethal than he already was.

Alone, without the armor, Rory was deadly; but with it, he was a force to be reckoned with. It enhanced his already nearly superhuman attributes, but also came with quite a few tricks. After all, it takes quite a bit to bring down an Omega level mutant, especially with how rare and powerful they are, but with the suit he has killed two single-handedly. That's not something most people can brag about. The reason he was wearing it now was because he had to have it to tie up those loose ends he had been gone so long for, hopefully it wouldn't give Freya too much of a fright.

Rory let himself down slowly from the ceiling, coming down right behind the couch she was resting on and leaned over her. He leaned down, next to her ear, and whispered softly, "Freya.". Then with little sound he disappeared into the darkness of the room as if he had never even existed.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Freya really was almost asleep, close enough that she didn't notice a dark shadow crawling around on the ceiling like some sort of insect. If she had.... Well she would have squashed it, just like a bug! Or... Maybe not squash... Burn would be the most likely solution. The fire was flickering even more, growing weaker and weaker as she dozed off. It'd be less then a minute now before the fire was completely extinguished.

She shifted a little in her 'almost' sleep, trying to get a little more comfortable on the couch, a soft murmur escaped her lips as she just near buried her face in the arm. Whatever it was she had muttered was completely inaudible, muffled by the cloth. If only she'd known just what was about to happen...

A single word was whispered in her ear. Her name? Reluctantly her eyes opened, pulled from her almost sleep. She sat up a little, the fire blazing again as she blinked the sleep from her eyes. What the hell had that been? She looked over her shoulders, searching for whatever the source had been. Wait... What was it she'd heard? She couldn't even remember... Had she just imagined it?

[Rory Ashe]

As the flames from the fire erupted back to life, the light they gave off almost touched Rory. Just as a precaution, he took another step back, further into the darkness of the room as Freya sat up and looked around. She looked more confused than afraid, as if what she thought she heard had just been a bad dream or something. He couldn't help but grin slightly behind the helmet, her reaction to his presence was going to be very interesting.

"Freya!" This time the voice was shouted, echoing of the walls of the empty room. Though, it was muffled and distorted by the helmet, making it sound more like a metallic growl than an actual human. He knew her next move would be to light up the room, so without hesitation he backed up to one of the walls and crawled onto the ceiling, moving towards Freya again.

He pulled a small black ball from his pocket, and tossed it to the opposite side of the room, into the darkness to make a slight popping sound as it hit the ground. Hopefully that would distract her enough to keep her eyes on the ground, and not on the ceiling as he crawled above her.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Rory was right. The moment she heard her name, and it was for sure her name this time, the first thing on her to do list was find the source. And that meant lighting up everything. The fire in the center of the room split apart, flying in all directions to light the entire room. Who the hell was in the Castle? The voice.... It really hadn't sounded human. What was going on?

Normally, she'd blame it on the castle. Hell, it did look pretty haunted at night! And when it was pitch black except for the fires she made? Even worse. Today though, it was almost like a sixth sense had kicked in. Something was wrong. This wasn't the castle just being it's usual haunted self. She wasn't imagining this...

Everything was bright now... And still nothing. What the hell? Great... Maybe she had imagined it. She was going crazy! Er... Crazier. Still, that feeling in her stomach wouldn't go away...

Freya let out a sigh. Why was she being so paranoid? Nothing was the-

Something hit the stone floors on the opposite side of the room. Freya didn't even hesitate, fire lashing out from the center of the room and rushing off to that corner. She didn't see what happened as the flames seemed to erupt the moment they reached the corner, hopefully to incinerate whatever had been there...

[Rory Ashe]

Just as he had excepted, fire erupted across the room and every shadow disappeared, as predicted. It was one of the reasons why Rory was good at what he did, knowing how people would react and using it to his advantage. As he looked down on her he grinned again, normally this would be the point where he would kill the mutant he was terrifying, but he had other plans with Freya and hurting her would never ever be one of them.

Silently digging his boots into the ceiling, he let him self down so that he was hanging upside down, head even with Freya's but behind her. "Ya seem tense." The strange voice said, before Rory pulled himself back up so she couldn't see him when she turned around. Moving quickly, he moved behind her again on the ceiling. This time dropping down, landing almost without a sound on the couch behind her.

Rory propped his foot on his knee and leaned back, stretching an arm across the back of the couch. "Over 'ere, beautiful." Once again, the voice spoke to her back, but didn't move this time, just sat staring at her, red eyes aglow. It was completely obvious whoever the figure was, he was taunting Freya.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

Freya usually wasn't someone you'd call 'predictable', even if you did know her pretty. And the way she had reacted... well maybe it had been a little to predictable. Whether Rory had noticed that... well it was unlikely. Sometime during her search of the room, she'd slowly pulled herself to her feet, her movements slow, as if uncertain what was going on or reluctant to stand. Why was... whatever this was happening right now?

Suddenly, she heard that voice again, right behind her. As predictable as it was, she turned to try and find the source. That accent... It was impossible to distinguish from whatever it was masking the voice... But it sounded.... It was far to familiar. Again, that voice behind her. Great, whoever it was taunting her was blasted fast, or she was going completely insane... But she wasn't imagining this whole thing... Was she?

God, that accent! It was so familiar! And those specific words.... Would some random intruder say something like that? Slowly she turned once more. This time she saw the person, just lounging there on the couch, as if nothing had happened and they'd been there the whole time! Her first instinct? Fry the guy, and it was a guy, that was completely obvious. Freya stopped herself though, that accent still haunting her. Finally she knew what it was. Irish. Just like Rory. And facing the intruder only jogged her memories even more. Rory was tall and strongly built, just like the man on the couch...

".... Rory?"

[Rory Ashe]

Rory tapped his fingers on the back of the couch as he waited for Freya to turn around. When she said his name though, the tapping fingers stopped and he grinned behind his mask. How had she known? Not that it really mattered, she didn't know for certain after all. Slowly the dark figure stood up, standing well over Freya's head. It was a bit of an intimidating sight to see a solid black figure, with glowing red eyes and a skull painted on it's helmet standing in your home; but Freya wasn't exactly one to be intimidated obviously.

Rory continued walking toward Freya, obviously not going to stop, trying his best to intimidate her. Flicking his hands, the claws extended out of each of his fingers again, "Rory? Name sounds familiar... Oh, aye... I met 'im a few days ago. Good fighter, but... beatable." The last word was said with an obvious sinister tone.

He continued walking toward Freya, wiggling his clawed fingers as if preparing to use them, "Was he a... Lover of some sort?" He knew Freya was going to be incredibly mad when she found at that the imposing man in her house was Rory, but he just couldn't resist seeing how far this would go.

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

The armor the man wearing was intimidating, it almost seemed to make him look larger then he was. When he stood her eyes narrowed a little. Wouldn't Rory have just taken off the mask if it were him? If it was him... He was playing one sick joke right now. Or... Okay, she wouldn't have thought it sick if this had been any other time. As it is... She was still unusually jumpy from her.... encounter a few days before. If it wasn't Rory, and really was someone come to kill her, she probably stood no chance in her current state.

It hadn't been noticeable before, but with the entire room lit up like it was, something was obviously off about Freya. Her skin was a little paler then usual, a few bandages on her arms, more hidden under her cloths...

He was speaking again, in that Irish accent covered by the mask. Again, she was thought the voice belonged to Rory. It had to! Freya smirked a little, not moving from her stop as he approached. Just as tall as Rory...

"Oh really?" She didn't stop smirking as she paused. " Sorry, but he's not that easy to beat."

[Rory Ashe]

Rory stopped inches from her, she hadn't moved a muscle the whole time and showed no signs of intimidation. Even Rory was impressed with that. He stared down at her for a moment, grinning behind his helmet, he stayed silent for a few moments until she spoke. Once again, she surprised him with the fact that she was actually smirking over all this, she knew who he was, that was obvious.

Finally he spoke, "Aww... I'm flattered, alainn." Suddenly, the red eyes on the mask dimmed, flickered, then shut off completely. The clawed hands reached up and slowly took off the helmet, revealing some shaggy red hair and an unshaven, grinning, Rory.

"Ya go me." He said with a slight grin, it was then he noticed just how pale Freya was and the bandages. The grin disappeared instantly, replaced with extreme concern, "What are those?! Are ye alright?" He asked, suddenly very concerned. What had happened? Was she alright? Why did he have to stay gone so long? One thing was for sure, if someone gave her those wounds, then he was going to leave right now, find them, and kill them. No, he wouldn't kill them, but he would make them wish he would.

[tari]

Tari then burst into the room, barely keeping her power contained as she stormed in. She completely ignored Rory as strode past him to her sister, who was barely alive. With all the emotions swirling inside her, it was a wonder that Tari kept her power under control. She knew that Freya wouldn't recover if it was freezing in the room. That was the only reason the whole room wasn't a frozen wasteland.

"Freya..." Tari's eyes welled with tears and knelt down when she reached her sister. "I heard what happened and came immediately. Do you remember where Cain went?! I'm going to murder him." She immediately started evaluating Freya's wounds, finding some of them critical wounds that her sister managed to burn closed. Tari cursed. "Damn it, Freya..." She immediately thought of Aaron, but he was all the way in Canada, spending his married life with Nessa.

Gritting her teeth in frustration, Tari suddenly stood up. She finally noticed Rory and an expression of pure anger filled her features. The temperature fell a few degrees as she walked toward him and when she reached him, Tari drew back her hand and slapped Rory across the face, leaving a streak of ice.

"You were supposed to protect her!! Instead, you run off for four months, doing who-knows-what, making her depressed and now here she is, near death...AND YOU WEREN'T THERE!!!! Did you even know that she was crucified? Did you even KNOW that Freya was nearly killed?" Tari stood there, quivering in rage after ranting to Rory, only inches from his face.

Suddenly, she was icy calm and her expression was unreadable. "I want you to leave. Now. You don't get to see Freya until I'm satisfied you've racked yourself with guilt and worry."

[Freya Elensar Ashe]

It had to be Rory. If it was an intruder coming to kill her they would have already, not just taunt her. It wasn't logical. She was already injured! Wouldn't an assassin take advantage of that? If it wasn't Rory... This was one twisted assassin with an unnervingly similar accent...

Freya almost let out a sigh of relief when she heard that word, Alainn. She knew that word. Knew it well. Only Rory had called her that. "Were you trying to give me a heart attack?" She paused for only a moment. "And how the hell did you know where I was?" Had she ever told him where the Castle was? Sure, France, but she couldn't recall ever naming the actually place! Well... It wouldn't have been that hard to find out, just ask several people, one would surely point you in the right direction. But that wasn't the point! How had he known she was in France to begin with? Had he gone to the school first? Or just guessed she'd be here? Great... Was she really getting that predictable?

His concern almost caught her off guard, her injuries having been forgotten in her attempt to figure out who had been trying to scare her. Now that her thoughts were brought back to them.... She almost hesitated. It'd be a really bad idea to tell him what had happened... "I'm fi-"

Tari was charging into the chamber, the sudden drop in temperature almost making Freya flinch. She just had to come right now, didn't she? "You're making too much of a fuss..." No she wasn't, but Freya had decided. She didn't want Rory to know what happened.

Freya hadn't used her power to sear all her wounds shut, just the ones that she would have died from otherwise, seeing as she refused to go to the Hospital. The fact that she'd had to resort to burning herself to begin with... It didn't say anything good about her condition.

Tari was running wild, suddenly turning on Rory and raising a hand to him. She reached out quickly, grabbing onto Tari's wrist just a second to late to stop her from slapping Rory. That streak of ice would still be there, but Freya's own hand was quickly covered in frost. It raised only one question, why wasn't the frost melting on contact?

"Tari, don't..!" It was obvious, she didn't want Rory to know what happened. Tari had already screamed at him though... "Stop it, Leave him be." She wasn't yelling yet, which was probably shocking, seeing how easily angered she was. If this had been any other time, she would have exploding if someone even think of speaking to Rory like that! Right now though...

She hoped that Rory wouldn't listen to Tari and leave. He couldn't leave right after getting back! Sure, the timing of his return was pretty bad, but right now really was when she needed him the most. "Tari.... The temperature..." Freya released her sister's wrist, bringing her frost covered hand back to herself. Tari would know what Freya meant. Freya was to tired to raise her own body temperature. If Tari didn't stop, she really would freeze Freya out.

"You weren't supposed to know..." She kept her gaze away from both her sister and lover, unable to face either. What happened... Sure she'd nearly been killed, but she was almost... embarrassed at what happened. How could she have made such a bonehead mistake when she faced Cain?

[Rory Ashe]

The look on Freya's face was greatly concerning Rory. He hadn't ever seen that before. She was pale, looked weak, nothing like her normal incredibly vibrant and full of life self. Apparently she still had her spitfire temperment though, immediately chewing him out for scaring her and then grilling him for why he was here.

He couldn't help but grin a little and moved a little closer to Freya about to pull her into a hug, "It's not tha' hard... I was in Europe already and I mentioned the name Elensar and everyone pointed this place out. Yer not exactly hard to find in a giant cas...tle." Rory said, trailing off as Tari burst into the room and immediately got between him and Freya.

Rory took an awkward step back as she began looking over her sister. Trying to peek over her shoulder at Freya but Tari was moving so frantically he couldn't see anything. Then, before he could even react, she had spun around and slapped him. Now, it was not enough to hurt him, after all, he'd been through worse the last few days... However, it was enough to catch him by surprise and drop the helmet to his suit as she started screaming at him. Maybe not literally screaming, but close enough.

Calmly, he grabbed his helmet and stood back up to his full height, rubbing his cheek slightly to find it covered with ice. An eery expression came across Rory's face, or perhaps it was the total lack of any expression or emotion that made it eery as he stared at Tari. Were she anyone else, anyone other than Freya's sister... He probably would have reached out and cut off her head on the spot for doing that, as it were, he simply stood and listened to her rant.

Something she said though caused a look of concern to flash across his face again and he began looking behind Tari at Freya, who was holding her hand; completely ignoring Tari.

"Crucified?... Nearly killed?! Freya, wha's she talking about hon'?" Rory said, just as Tari suddenly ended her rant and was completely calm, telling him to leave. He glanced between Freya and Tari as she told him to get out, "Tari, lass... Yer lips are moving and words are coming out... You should stop, the image isn't becoming of you." Rory said callously, he and Tari had always been on bad terms and always seemed to find time to insult each other, but now was different. Emotions were running high and everyone was on edge.

"Freya..." He spoke much softer now, turning back to the only person he had ever really loved, "Does this have anything to do with the stories I've heard about the attack Cain made on France?" There were rumors all along his travels that a few days ago, or less maybe, Cain had attack Paris and another mutant fought him off... Could that've been Freya? She was definitely one of the few that could stand toe to toe with him.

[tari]

Tari's heart raced in her chest when Freya gripped her wrist and saw that frost had formed on her sister's hand. Frantically, she tried to keep the cold inside herself, allowing the frost to melt, but the damage was done. Freya was obviously not strong enough to fend off only a sliver of Tari's power.

Keeping an icy calm, Tari then looked back at Rory "Are you serious? Of course it was Freya fighting Cain. Considering how much damage was caused..." She then turned to Freya. "Is this guy for real?" But her attention then went back to how serious Freya's condition was. "We need to call Aaron. Now. I won't take no for an answer, Freya."

Tari let out a sigh, realizing she wasn't needed. Freya didn't want her sister...she wanted him. The guy who abandoned her for four months and left her out to dry. It felt as if Rory took away the one thing Tari had left in the world...and she hated him for it. If he wasn't her only sister's lover, Tari would have filled his lungs with ice, making him choke and beg for mercy as she would slowly suffocate him. With one last scathing glance, she turned towards Freya with a reproachful look. "I'll be outside...if you need me. Ever." Loneliness filled her heart as she walked out of the room, the beginning of tears rolling down her cheeks.