Anomalies: Control

They weren’t even in a room, that was the first surprising thing. They were just at the end of the hall, on a window seat. The curtains were drawn so as not to risk any attention drawn to them, even though the window would let out to the backyard, but the other weird thing was how closely they were talking. Not even physically, just intensely, off in their own little world together. He didn’t want to admit that it was jealousy making his skin hot, but he knew it was. He didn’t go over, just lingered near the stairs watching them do nothing more than talk - they weren’t even touching for crying out loud - feeling the irrational urge to go over and sit between them. She was hurt and struggling and fresh back from not only a near-successful suicide attempt, but whatever had happened to her in these past months to drive her to such an extreme. She needed familiarity, and if what she wanted was Garet, he’d let them have all the time they needed, jealous or not.

“They‘re a weird pair, aren’t they?” Banshee’s voice made him turn to see her climb up the last stair to bring her even with him. He smiled at her as she crept a little closer, looping an arm around her shoulders for a one-armed hug.

“I definitely didn’t predict it.”

“I guess they’ve had a thing since before I got here,” she said, her eyes on the two at the window. He shot her a curious look, and she giggled a little and added, “Not like that; like…a friendship. Kane and Track say he was one of the only people she’d talk to for like, a year.”

“Besides Tech.”

She giggled again. “Well yeah. Almost everyone’s got a ‘besides Tech’ clause.”

Rune and Garet both looked up, either unable or unwilling to ignore the giggling any longer, and he felt his muscles coil a little tighter at the look on Rune’s face. “I’ll catch up with you,” he murmured to Banshee, stepping forward to go meet Rune as she nodded him toward a door. There were people in it, but a snap from Rune had them slinking out with annoyed expressions and no arguments. Finally alone and without anything to do or take care of or handle, he was able to smile and wrap his arms around her waist and lift her into a bear hug. He knew she wasn’t a huge fan of touching, but he couldn’t help it, and with his own ability under control, he knew he wouldn’t set her off.

She wriggled to be put down, shoving away from him, and he obliged, still grinning and teasing with her.

“Now that’s not quite the reaction I was hoping for.” But it was the one he’d expected. “I was hoping for maybe a ‘thank you Cole’; ‘I can’t believe you came back for me Cole’; mayb-”

“Stop,” she deadpanned, and his laughter faded away at the harsh lines on her face, the way she moved away from him as though bracing herself for him to turn on her.

“Sorry, you’re right, got a little overexcited,” he tried to agree, hoping that could be the reason she was unhappy. He toned down the excitement, going to sit on the bed and give her some space. “How are you?”

“Why’d you do this?” she asked, half accusing and half pleading. He’d never heard this tone from her, never heard anything even remotely resembling pleading, and he didn’t like it. “Why’d you drag everyone in there to get us? We were gone, you should have just let us be gone, moved on. That’s how people like Kane and Track and Tech have survived this long. They don’t go back; they don’t put themselves in danger.”

“Hey,” he interrupted, getting a little annoyed himself. “Everyone came of their own free will. Everyone involved had someone they wanted out of there. I didn’t drag anyone in by their ears, they chose to come.”

“But you posed the idea. You put it out there. You organized it. Or do I have that wrong?” She bit the words off like they were poisoning her tongue, and he stood, glaring at her.

“Hell yeah, I did. I wasn’t about to leave you with them. You said it yourself, this is about me-”

“This isn’t just about you!”

That actually succeeded in making him pause. Tech had never argued his assumption that this was about him, and he’d never considered that this was still about Rune after all these years. “Rue, you can’t keep thinking this is all about you.” He didn’t want to say she wasn’t that important, because she was, to him and to Tech, but in the big picture… she was just another Anomaly.

“It’s not all about me, I’m not fucking stupid. But it’s about all of us. They want to use me, and they want to use you, and you know the worst part?” She practically snarled the last words. “I’d have given you to them.”

An icy hand felt like it wrapped around his heart, stalling it for a second, and he heard her continue to attack him with what had happened in there through a fuzzy sort of filter, like he was hearing it past white noise.

“That shifter chick, the reason I want to kill her is because they tried to use her to break me. They had her take Pierce’s body and try to convince me to tell them where you all had vanished off to.” His lips parted to ask if she’d given in, but nothing came out. Not that it mattered; she didn’t need him to prompt her. “I didn’t. But if I didn’t know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my boys were dead and nothing was bringing them back, I’d have given them anything and everything they wanted. You, Tech, Skye, the tunnels; I’d have detailed every fucking Anomaly I’ve ever come across.” Tears were starting to trace slow paths down her cheeks, and while the betrayal was still fresh, there was still a small part of him that wanted to comfort her. “And I wouldn’t have even paused to think about it.” Her voice finally broke, and she clenched her jaw for a few long moments to collect herself.

A knock on the door interrupted their conversation, and he struggled to find his voice. “What?” He managed, and the door creaked open to reveal Talia, Amanda lingering a pace behind.

“Sorry, I just - Tech wanted me to tell you that uhm, the girl, Tracker?” She paused as though asking if she’d gotten the name right, and Cole nodded, scrubbing a hand over his face as Rune turned to the wall so her back was to the two government girls. Talia, surprisingly, didn’t look uncomfortable at being around Rune, but rather politely uncomfortable, as though she was used to this kind of thing, and her casualness went a long way to helping Cole regroup himself. “Tracker left with the others, and we’re prepared for whenever the Officers arrive.”

“Thanks, Tal.”

She nodded and turned to leave, but Amanda interrupted them.

“They’ve got a summoning call out for us. Probably the others too if they’re not already with them.”

Both Cole and Rune turned on the girls, matching urgent expressions, but it was Cole that spoke. “What’s a summoning call?”

Talia shot Amanda an annoyed look, then turned back to Cole and Rune. “Dimitri is another Anomaly that works for the department, and his ability is that of being able to call people - Anomalies or regular - to him, like… like that children’s story of the pied piper. It’s difficult to ignore, but not impossible. More… annoying. Like a song you can’t get out of your head. Going to him silences the song, but you can deal with it in the meantime even if you don’t go.” She glanced at Amanda, who’d inched closer to her under the venomous gaze of Rune, who barely seemed to acknowledge Talia at all, and the shield reached to hold the other girl’s hand. “He can’t sense where we are, he’s just fishing for anyone who got separated that isn’t dead. It won’t be a problem.”

He wasn’t convinced, but he was willing to trust Talia. “You’re sure?” She nodded, and he reluctantly nodded in response. “Alright then. If it gets bad, let someone know and we’ll figure something out.”

Talia nodded. “We will, thank you. Well, we’ll… leave you be.” She trailed off, taking a step backwards.

“Take Cole with you,” Rune snapped.

“Rue, c’mon-”

“Get out,” she growled, and he huffed in annoyance and stomped out of the room. If she wanted to be a brat about this, fine, he’d go cool off and let her do the same. Maybe talk to Tech about this whole ‘I’d give you up’ business. Surely Tech would have some insight.

He followed Talia and Amanda back down the stairs to find Tech. The house had emptied a good bit, but there were still a lot of familiar faces crowding the small place.

“I’m sorry if we interrupted something.”

He shot a smile at Talia, shaking his head. “It wasn’t you, she was about to kick me out anyway. Rue’s not a big ‘people’ person.”

“I just feel bad, like we kind of prompted it.”

“You didn’t, don’t even worry about it,” he assured her, detouring off to the kitchen to find Tech. He peeked in and waved for attention. “Hey, Tech, can I borrow you?”

The Mechanical looked up and nodded, muttering something to Kane and following Cole out of the room, back to the garage. “What’s up Charge?”

“Rue just told me when she was in the main building that she’d have given us up in exchange for Pierce, Jack and Landon.”

He was expecting a few different reactions. Surprise, shock, maybe disgust or outrage. He expected to have to defend Rune, to point out why Tech had kept her around all these years.

“And?”

He ended up being the shocked one. “What do you mean ‘and?’ She told me to my face that if they’d had Pierce and the others alive, she’d have sold us out without even a thought. You don’t find that at least… surprising?”

The older man gave him a look he didn’t want to call pitying, but there really was no other word for it. “Charge, I understand where you’re coming from, I really do. But that’s the thing about liking Rue: either you try to stop liking her, or you accept the fact that no matter how much she likes you - and she does like you Charge, I can tell you that with all honesty- you will never mean as much as those boys did to her. And it’s nothing to do with who’s better or who she has a better spark with. It’s about the fact that everything about those boys will remain unrequited. She loved Pierce, and she loved him in the way teenagers love, with everything she had. And he got less than five minutes to tell her he loved her too, for the only time. And the fantasy of what could have happened but never did will always trump what’s happening to her in the real world. Added to the guilt of blaming herself for getting them killed, and it’s just… a clusterfuck. There’s really no other word for it.”

“And you’re just… ok with that?”

Tech shrugged. “It’s either that or I kick her out. And without some sort of home base, she’d have gotten herself caught or killed a long time ago.” He laid a hand on Cole’s shoulder briefly before turning to go back inside. “Sometimes you’ve got to take the good with the bad. No matter how bad bad gets.”

Cole nodded unhappily, wanting to sulk for a minute but remembering the other thing he should tell Tech. “By the way, Talia said some Anomaly named Dimitri has a summoning call out for the missing government Anomalies.” That succeeded in pausing the other man. “Talia says it’s annoying but not un-ignorable and that’s it’s nothing to worry about. But I thought you should know regardless.”

The Mechanical nodded, his eyes darting to the door like he was contemplating. “Thanks for the heads up, Charge. If there’s anything else, I’ll be in the kitchen until the Officers come.”

He nodded and let Tech leave, falling back against the wall for a few minutes to relax and think about what Tech had said.

The Officers, surprisingly, did not prove to be a major issue. Amanda played her part perfectly, everyone was quiet and obedient, and the ones down in the basement stayed silent, and the Officers came and went without incident, and the house was able to calm. It was dark by the time they came and went, and practically pitch black by the time Tracker returned with Suki and Hawk but no nomads, who had apparently decided they’d be safer staying in the tunnels. The triplets were still M.I.A., but no one was worried; they had probably gotten distracted by something.

Most of the house was asleep not long after Tracker and the others returned, making the house quieter and feel emptier the later it got. He wasn’t sleeping; he didn’t trust himself to be able to wake up if needed. Right now, it was safer to ride the high of being too tired to the point of hyperactivity.

Which lasted about an hour.

“Fuck! Tech!” Banshee’s voice - shrill, but not as shrill as he knew it could get - jolted him awake and he flailed entirely off the couch, scrubbing his face with a hand and wondering what the hell was happening.

Tech came running out of the kitchen, Maggie on his heels, and a few others came running down the stairs. Cole’s eye darted from Banshee, to Tech, and up the stairs until they fell on Rune before returning to Banshee, who was in a state.

“They ran! The government girls, they’re gone!”

Tech and Cole exchanged a look, cursing under their breath as rumblings turned to discord, demanding they go find the girls and stop them from reaching wherever they were going. Only Cole, Rune and Tech - and probably Maggie - knew about the summoning call, and the others were obviously worried the girls had just left to betray them for some darker purpose.

“Everyone calm down,” Tech said, his voice raised just enough to be heard over the others. “Yes, we need to find them. But we need to find them quietly and get them back here.”

“Or just shut them up,” Rune suggested acidly, earning a warning look from Tech and Cole both. But others weren’t so opposed.

“For once I agree with the enchantress,” Kane announced.

“So do I,” Banshee added, looking around at the others who were nodding in slight confusion, not sure what they were agreeing to in their half-asleep states, but knowing that if Kane and Banshee were on board, odds were they would be as well just by merit of past experiences.

“No one’s shutting anyone up,” Tech laid down the rule in one of his more final tones. “And I’m done hearing about it, got it?” he said, the order directed at everyone but his eyes on Rune. She wrinkled her nose but shrugged in acquiescence. “Tracker, take Kane with you and go get them.” The woman nodded, and followed Tech into the kitchen to get a backpack. Cole trailed after them, wanting to make sure Talia and Amanda weren’t going to be hurt, but when they went back to the living room to see Tracker and Kane out, there was one very important person missing.

“Where’s Rue?”

The others looked around at each other, no one willing to give Rune up, as though she’d magically divine who spoke and come back for them. Garet ended up being the one to speak, his voice tired and vaguely annoyed at having to be speaking aloud at all. “She went after the government girls. She doesn’t think they’ll come quietly.”

Cole felt his jaw clench tightly, and he looked to Tracker. “I’m going with you,” he announced, grabbing his coat off the couch and stalking to the door. “Dammit Rue.”

Tracker came trotting after him, Kane being smart enough to stay behind and not argue with him while he was pissed off, and Cole and Tracker tried to stay inconspicuous as they ducked down the shadowed streets. It was late, the only people being out being emergent workers, the only ones who kept late enough shifts to be out after dark. They were careful to stay out of sight as they followed Tracker’s senses leading to the three girls.

“Shit,” Tracker muttered, breaking into a jog down a side alley. Cole wasn’t sure he really wanted to know what had caused the curse, he went after Tracker, and ended up in a second alleyway, a backstreet behind a line of apartment buildings.

“Dammit Rue!” Cole whisper shouted as he and Tracker both broke into a run toward the two unconscious girls on the ground, and the one leaning against the back wooden fence that lined the back of the street. He dropped to Talia’s side and Tracker went for Amanda while Rune watched with a flat expression.

“She’s breathing,” Tracker announced softly, and Cole nodded in relief, feeling a pulse under his fingertips.

“So’s Talia.” He rose to his feet, pinning Rune with a glare. “What the hell were you thinking!?”

“Reasoning with them wasn’t going to work. They’d have fought you, wasted time, raised their voices, attracted attention, and gotten you caught again.”

“Much like we’re doing now,” Tracker pointed out.

“Point taken,” he said with a pointed look to Tracker instead of Rune. “Let’s try to get them back. Now we’ve got two unconscious bodies to get back to the safe house somehow. Nicely done on the ‘not attracting attention’, Rue.”

“Shut up. The street goes almost the entire way back to the house. It’s how they and I both got here faster than you.”

“How did you know that?” Tracker snapped, hefting Amanda up and looping a limp arm around her own shoulders and wrapping her arm around the shifter’s waist to keep her up. Cole lifted Talia in his arms, hoping no one would notice them, and the group started making their way back to the safe house.

“I’ve been here before.”

Cole was surprised only because Tracker looked so surprised. The Affector’s glare only worsened. “Why am I not fucking surprised?”

“Because you like to pretend that nothing surprises you even when it obviously does?”

“Ladies,” Cole snapped quietly, trying to control the two of them. “Seriously, five minutes. Just until we get back. Just five minutes of both of you shutting the fuck up. Please.”

Both women looked at him in surprise, and both were actually dead silent the rest of the way back. Huh. Maybe he should try that more often. There was a dangerous moment when they had to come back to the front of the street and knock on Tech’s door, praying they wouldn’t be seen, and falling into the house in a rush, but no alarms went off, no shouting started, and they were hoping they’d gotten through without issue.