Moira/Nathan

[x-mactaggart.livejournal.com]

A student yelped as Moira tore down the stairs and she didn't even bother to apologize. The link between her and Nathan was starting to get painfully—bright in her mind. She didn't try to touch it, the muffled roaring thoughts were leaking over as it was and she couldn't afford to get caught up that deeply when she didn't know what was going on. She skidded on the wood floors, landed on one knee before she managed to catch herself, but that didn't slow her down long.

A few more minutes and then she burst outside, the door banging closed behind her. Moira couldn't see him yet--he'd stumbled off to where he was clear of the actual mansion, it seemed, but as she listened, she could hear his unique bellow. She took off towards that direction, not sure of what she'd find.

He had found his way to the lake again, somehow, even half-blinded with rage. But the tiny part of him that was still capable of rational thought had known he had to get away from the mansion, to somewhere away from people and any structures that needed to remain standing. This was safe, though, he couldn't hurt anyone or anything here. Safe to let it out...

#WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?# The words came out telepathically, hurling themselves at the indifferent sky, accompanied by a wordless snarling growl that wrenched itself out from behind his clenched teeth. The fury tried to swamp his thoughts again, and Nathan clutched at his head, yanking unconsciously at his hair. The small pain didn't help him focus, and before he could stop himself, he felt telekinetic force shiver outwards from his body in an uncontrollable wave, like power spilling from an overfull cup.

And the ground itself rippled around him.

Moira didn't have much of a choice but to stop when the ground moved under her feet. With a curse, she went sprawling onto her hands and knees. "God damn it!" She stared at the ground as it kept rumbling, and then cursed again. Once she was up on her feet again, she started forward. "Nathan!"

Moira's voice penetrated the red haze and Nathan whirled around, raising both hands to forestall her from rushing to his side. "No," he snarled, barely able to focus on her. "Don't come near me--DON'T!" he shouted when she took a hesitant step forward. He felt another TK wave start and fought to lock it down, but the effort only made it emerge in a different form, more tightly-focused. There was a sharp cracking noise, and a foot-wide strip of sand running down to the water's edge was suddenly--changed, hard and slick.

"Well, fuck." She stared. Glass. He'd turned it to *glass*. A deep breath. "Nathan, calm down, *focus*."

Wild laughter exploded out of him and he turned, staggering. "Do you hear that?" he snarled, aloud and telepathically at the same time. "Come out, you bitch--let's finish this so that I can CALM THE FUCK DOWN!" Another concentrated lash of TK slipped out, and a tree farther up the slope exploded. He started to curse in Askani, the profanities coming to him as easily as if it was his first language. "~Motherless bitch, stab your eyes--~"

Well, that hadn't worked.

Memories tend to be nasty creatures but they can also be helpful. In her mind, Moira was back on Muir Island. Kevin, then six, was having a power fit. Everything was turned on its ear. Rory had tried to hold her back but she had kicked out his fake leg. To Kevin, she had been the only *real* thing there. Even Rory had been fair game. But Mum was Real. Mum was solid.

"Well, lover, let's 'ope it works th' same for yer," she muttered, kneeling on the ground. If she was going to get flattened mentally or physically, she preferred to do it sitting. And then she reached across that link, into that blinding light in the back of her mind.

This was a blind feel. No training, no power to back her, all she was relying on was her own stubborn will and the shared link between them. His own ability would help with this, she hoped.

Or else she'd end up being blasted about ten feet behind her. It was worth the risk.

A tug. A gentle, barely perceptible tug at his mind, and Nathan staggered, that pure, focused, overwhelming rage exploding outwards like glass shards slicing into what passed for his thoughts at the moment as he felt Moira calling him, trying to pull him back to something approaching sanity. For a sudden, dazed moment, he had no idea where he was, couldn't feel the ground beneath his feet, and another stream of profanity burst from him as he lost his hold on his telekinesis completely. All he could do was to focus on Moira, keep the space around her untouched.

Moira didn't move, didn't even breathe as the world went mad around her. More of those glassy streaks shot outwards from where Nathan was standing, and a few actual trenches, zig-zagging across the ground, dirt flying everywhere and then rising in a fine haze and twisting into a whirlwind around Nathan. One of the glassy streaks had shot up the slope, and a tinkling noise came from the tree it touched as its leaves changed, even as they blew in the sudden wind. There was a noise that sounded disturbingly like boiling water coming from the lake, and the air around Nathan was glowing, a bright, shimmering gold.

Then the light winked out and Nathan toppled like a felled tree.

Ten. Moira counted to ten slowly, forcing herself to stay put when he fell. Inside, she was screaming at herself to move but she waited for ten very long seconds. The second she hit ten, she was up and running towards him. Fear had settled itself firmly in her stomach and she felt colder than she had in a long time. Parts of the ground crunched when she stepped down on it, but she paid it no mind for now.

Coughing as the dirt settled around them, Moira landed on her knees next to him. Trembling she reached for him both physically and mentally. #Nathan? God, tell me yer there...#

Nothing, he was out cold. Cursing him under her breath, Moira tried to lift him up to get some leverage but it was no good. He was heavy to begin with and now he was just dead weight. But...Cain. Cain *could* bring him back into the house and down to the Medlab. She fumbled in her jeans pocket and brought out the pager. She typed in Cain's number and then the code for "outside" and waited, holding Nathan's hand.

***

She had locked him away. Put him in a room where the door didn't open, so that he would break and do what she wanted. Where there was nothing but him and the walls and all the dead people in his head. "~You don't get to see me beg,~# he raved in Askani, staggering back and forth, smashing fitfully at the walls with his telekinesis ever so often. #~Whatever you want from me, you have to flonqing take!~# Something was wrong, he could feel the structure of the walls but he couldn't pull them apart, couldn't summon up the concentration. They shook when he hit them, but they
didn't come apart and they should be coming apart...Laughing wildly, he tottered, going to his knees.

Moira stood on the other side of the door, arms braced and head hanging down. This was--hard. Of course it was, she snarled at herself, you've locked your boyfriend up in a metal box and he's scaring you and you just...Deep breath. Reach out. Again. Light touches, only, nothing harsh or strong. Like a kiss on the cheek. Her head was killing her and she knew after this was all said and done, she was going to lose everything in her stomach. But for now, she held herself together. Barely.

The walls weren't coming down. He hit them over and over again with his mind, then with his fists, at first sheathing them in telekinetic force but then letting even that drop and slamming flesh and blood into unyielding steel, screaming at her in his mind and aloud, calling down curses on her head in every language he knew, telling her she didn't get to use him, that he wasn't her weapon or her monument, to go away and die and leave him in peace, that he would kill himself before he let her do this to him--

But she didn't answer. None of them did. The voices were silent, and for the first time since all of this had started, he didn't want that. He wanted answers, explanations, a fucking apology... but sorry had no meaning, and the pain in his hands was starting to register. With a last wordless cry, hoarse with rage and agony, he smashed at the walls once more time, with everything he had left. They shook, but held, and he reeled to the closest corner, sliding down the wall and into a huddled ball, gasping and shaking. Cold, he was so cold, everywhere except inside his head, where he was burning--

She found herself counting to ten again. It seemed to take forever. But then her hands were fumbling with the locks on the door and she threw it open. Her heart broke when she saw huddled as small as he could get. "Nathan..." It came out as a whisper. All she wanted to do was to run to him and hold him, but she approached cautiously. In her mind, she touched the link and winced. It was like putting your fingers into water a little too warm. But she did it again.

The door opened, and Nathan pushed himself back into the corner until he couldn't go any farther. It was her, he thought disjointedly, seeing nothing but the red hair. Her, and he didn't have anything left, couldn't--

But then she moved closer at the same time a gentle, hesitant touch came on the link, and he saw that it wasn't her, but Moira. He stared at her, wide-eyed and shivering from the cold. "You h-have to go," he managed somehow, his voice barely more than a croak. "She'll come. She was going to hurt Shinobi. Make me do it."

"Then I'll take me chances," she asserted, going down to her knees in front of him. Moira hissed slightly at the sight of his hands. Torn up, bloodied, a downright mess. She reached for them slowly.

It was hard to think. Nothing seemed to be quite right around him, even with the voices gone, and he flinched violently as she took his hands, turning them back and forth gently as she examined them. "Your hands are so cold," he muttered faintly. "Are you really here?"

"Always." The cuts weren't deep but there were a lot of them. "I'm 'ere, Nathan." She reached out for the link again, a longer touch this time, seeing how he would react to it.

He squeezed his eyes shut, sucking in a sharp breath as he felt something tugging at him again. Trying to bring him down to solid ground, he thought wildly. "I killed a tree," he said aloud, and started to laugh distractedly. "Two trees, right? Was supposed to kill her, but I killed trees instead--"

Deep breath. Moira brought up on of his hands and pressed a kiss to the back of it, away from the scrapes and blood. "Ye did a bloody fantastic job, if tha' 'elps any," she tried to joke, her voice breaking a little.

His eyes snapped open and he tried to focus on her face. "No one gets to use me as a weapon," he said, his voice gravelly. Then a thought got stuck in his still-dazed mind and he started to laugh again. "At least, not unless they pay for the privilege, and she didn't pay, Moira--"

This was really starting to frighten her but she forced the feeling down. "Nathan, focus, damn it." She reached out and cupped his chin. "'Tis over."

He didn't really hear her, or register the touch. "What does that say about me?" he asked, his eyes roving the room. "I kill my family trying to get away from being used and then I take money for it. She just wants me for what I am, Moira--"

If that approach didn't work, then the next might. #Then fight her! Let me 'elp! But damn ye, Nathan Christopher Daysprin', if ye start givin' up on me now, there'll be 'ell ta pay!# Direct. Blunt. The link was still a mess and it felt like she was dipping her brain into hot wax.

He blinked as the shout echoed across the link, and looked at her, seeing her, really seeing her for the first time since she had come in. "Moira--" he said unsteadily and raised a shaking hand to touch the side of her face, feeling the link quivering. "Did I--" He stopped, looking around. "You had to put me in here," he said slowly, trying to think. "It wasn't her."

She leaned into the touch, grateful that something had gotten across. "Aye, I did. Ye lost control an' I dinnae know wha' else ta do."

Nathan looked around again, taking in his surroundings finally, trying to analyze the--fuzziness to his thoughts. "You sedated me," he said slowly. "That's why the walls wouldn't break--"

"Yer ta stron'," she said quietly, closing her eyes. "Cain 'elped me brin' ye in after wha' 'appened outside."

"Cain--" Nathan murmured. "Don't remember that--was he mad about the trees?"

"'e grumbled, loudly. Nay more than usual." This, she decided, was surreal.

Nathan looked back at Moira, staring at her for a long moment, seeing the signs of pain and anxiety as if they were carved into her face like scars. The link was still shaking. "I think this has to stop," he said, the words coming out eerily calm.

Moira swallowed thickly and prayed that he meant that in a positive way. "Aye," she agreed, looking him in the eyes. "It does. Any ideas?"

He let his forehead rest on his knees for a moment. His hands were throbbing, keeping time with the ache in his head. "How much--can we inhibit my telekinesis at all?" he asked weakly.

"Some. I'm nay sure 'ow much before it gets ta risky ta push." She lifted his hands and blew gently on the cuts, trying to soothe the throbbing she knew had to be there.

"What about--" He stopped, swallowing, horror at what he was about to say nearly choking him. "My telepathy. What if you asked Xavier--or Frost--to cut me off from it? If she can't reach me--"

There was a rather large ball of ice forming in her stomach. She knew what that would mean, to cut himself off completely from something he was so familiar with. And her. "I...I can see," she whispered, shaking a little.

"I could just--turn it all in on myself," he muttered, the possibilities flickering through his mind. "Burn myself out--"

"Wha'?! Are ye...nay!" Moira was shaking more. That could possibly kill him, or destroy him or both.

"No, I think that would be best," he said dimly, nodding to himself. It made sense. No half-measures. "Then she's cut off for good."

"Ye willin' ta take th' bot' o' us wit' ye?" Moira snapped, struggling to get through to him. That was NOT the way. Not if she had anything to say about it.

He blinked at her. "The link--" he said unsteadily, remembering what she'd said Xavier had told her about how it shouldn't be removed. But if he didn't do something she could get hurt worse. Torn, he stared down at her, trying to find words, but they wouldn't come.

"We'll find another way," she said harshly. Her throat was tight and hot now, it was hard to talk around. "Nay tha' one. Yer nay givin' up, ye 'ear me?"

"I can't," he said dazedly. "Can't fight her, can't get away--"

"There's a way." She took a deep breath. "Ye feelin' like ye can stand ta go upstairs or do ye want ta bunk down 'ere? Me office 'as a couch." Moira knew he didn't like hospital like rooms, even with doctors he trusted.

Nathan thought about it. "I've--never seen her in your office," he said slowly.

"Me office it is, then." Moira stood up slowly, hands still clasped around Nathan's, and tilted her head at him and smiled gently. "Let's get ye settled."

---

(Lyrics from Clannad's "I Will Find You")