Strangers and Lies (14 page)

"No, she simply isn't in the same range you are mentally. Her mind lacks discipline and the ability to weather shocks and hardships. I don't think that she can stay in control of the two of you without your permission, which is odd, given that this is her body, as she mentioned. It rather presents a problem though, doesn't it?"

That part the man didn't explain at all, but Gwen figured that she could guess what he meant. It wasn't what she thought however. It did lead to about an hour's worth of poking and some rather careful slaps to jar Katherine into position again, then close questioning in regards to what happened when Gwen was taken. She wasn't just mesmerized, the man that had done it, Jeffery, had been speaking to
Katherine
the whole time. As if he knew that she was there.

He'd claimed that Erin had sent him and enlisted the other girl to help keep Gwen under, from the inside.

It was a wonderful thing, in that no one in the room doubted that to be the case, but it meant that Debussey had been targeting
her
personally. She'd wanted Gwen for some reason.

"Probably to kill." The words came from Katherine, but the idea wasn't lost on Gwen.

She'd been a bit of a thorn in the woman's side and if Erin had brought her there to kill in the first place, then it stood to reason that she might want to finish the task. On the good side Katherine seemed to be more than willing to help stop her now, and gave up a lot of information about the people involved. There were way more than had been thought before, but the girl had been popular, if not overly respected, in the movement. So she had names. A lot of them.

That could happen when you slept with enough people.

Finally, after a time that was a lot longer, and more painful, than she needed to dwell on, the others let Gwen sleep. No one was all that worried about the damage done to her, not on a physical level, but mentally she was a lot more than a bit shaken.

The whole thing that had gotten her there wasn't a mistake, it had been... What? An assassination? They hadn't even wanted information from her, though the technique had clearly been used for that later. The bombs and sniper weapons came from someplace else after all, that was clear. As well as the knowledge of terrorism. In short the whole thing was clearly and truly messed up.

She slept then, not having a lot else to do and not knowing what the plan would be in the morning. They couldn't just let her go after all. No one mentioned that part of things, but it was so basic they didn't have to. The most sensible thing would be to lock her in a prison, or possibly to just take her out back and put a crin to her head. It didn't let her rest easily, but there wasn't a lot she could do about it either. It turned out that the person, one of the people, behind the whole thing was inside her
head
, and had been the whole time. That
had
to be a security risk that couldn't be allowed.

In the morning she was brought some tea on a tray with a few small sandwiches, by Beth, who seemed more than a little distracted, which was probably fair. The first words out of her mouth were shocking however. Almost to the point that Gwen wondered if she was still in a trance or whatever it was that had happened to her before. Mesmerized. Left living in a fantasy of her own design?

"We need to get back to Park Street, then you, Heather and I will be headed out to Morrisberg. That's where the main girls camp is being held for the Students Service. The boys camp as well, but we aren't working that one, for obvious reasons. It sounds fun. I've lived rough of course, in specialized military training, but I've never gone to a leisure camp out before." There was a delicate look about the thin woman and her face was a bit pale, which Gwen didn't trust at all. Bethany was strong in many ways, but she seemed a bit stiff and reserved suddenly. Which is what she did when she was worried and not allowed to do anything about it.

"Alright." Gwen had to pause, not knowing how to put what she needed to say. Then she just shrugged and did it. "So... how do we deal with Katherine? I don't know if the situation has changed at all, but I kind of expected to be at least locked away from polite society. Possibly killed. That might not be the best idea, because we may still be able to get more information from her, but just setting me free doesn't seem... Brilliant." It was kind of stupid really. There was an explanation for it at least, which Beth provided rapidly then.

"Which is what Darrick and Adam suggested. Imprisonment that is, neither called for your death, I'm sure you'll be heartened to know. In fact you're the only one to have mentioned that option. Ferdinand put his foot down however. We're to isolate you as we can, and try to find a way to question Katherine that doesn't include torture. They... really did a good job that way, didn't they, you're covered with bruises. What are we going to tell the girls at the camp out?" She didn't so much as crack a smile, and sounded very serious about the whole thing.

Gwen just shrugged.

"We don't have to tell them anything. If I show up and act like I'm not ashamed of it, they probably won't ask. If they do... Then we can just tell them the truth. It isn't a secret is it? The whole thing is so odd that I don't think anyone will be too scared. I really do seem to be in charge here so that part hasn't really changed much. You all can just keep pretending that I'm not allowed to know anything because I could be mesmerized, which is true..." The look on her friend's face was telling, with a complete turning away of her body and real blushing. It was a bit of a giveaway as to what had really been going on over the last weeks. Possibly longer. "So.. how long have you all known about this? That Katherine was inside my head. Or the other way around I guess..."

There was a moment of silence, the kind of thing that indicated a person was scrambling to think of a polite lie. Gwen had lived with a life full of those, normally from people that thought she was too disgusting to be around in her original warped form and who were scrambling for an excuse not to spend any time with her. This time at least that wasn't the case. Beth just didn't want to admit she'd been holding that information back. She did it though, after a few seconds of Gwen staring into her eyes. They were a pretty blue.

"About a month now. A little longer perhaps? We only suspected that it was
possible
of course, a few of the things that I'd picked up from you now and again were the main clues. No one knew anything for certain however. I... didn't want to bring it up. It was possible that Katherine had left a trace of herself inside of you after all. Instead it seems she left the whole thing." There was a hard look then as if Beth was really angry. "Not that it
matters
. She tried to kill you, on purpose, knowing that would be the case. She probably
did
kill you. It's only fair and fitting that she has to lose her own life for it. I think that you should go into training right now and lock her away inside forever."

The words came out in a sudden explosion, a thing that Gwen had seldom heard from her friend, even under some pretty tense situations. She was very clearly ticked... at Katherine.

"Seems like a plan to me. I would have felt bad if she was accidently trapped in my world, in my old body, but screw that noise. She can hang out in the back of my head now, while I live a much better life than she ever bothered to and undo all the damage she and her buddies are trying to foist on the world. What kind of morons are they anyway?" Gwen answered her own question, letting her hands flip out in a sharp motion that spoke of some anger on her part to. It showed that she was pretty sore from the beating, no matter how careful Regina had been through most of it. "
Evil
morons, no doubt. Probably with a dozen different reasons for doing it too, with the main one being that they aren't perfectly happy in life, so they want to see the world burn. Even if it means dying themselves."

There had been people like that back home too, of course. Apocalypse cults and fringe people that sat behind keyboards hoping for the end of the world each day, so that they wouldn't have to go into work on Monday or pay taxes. Gwen had given that a try for a while herself, but in the end she just hadn't had what it took to wish everyone else dead. Even if her life had sucked a lot harder than most people's. Maybe even because of that. She'd had to struggle to do anything in life, so everything seemed a bit like a blessing. Well, the good things anyway. The fact that she could keep a roof over her head and had television to keep herself distracted was
good
. That she'd constantly felt lonely... Well, that was just another thing to face each day, wasn't it? It hadn't been a good life, but it had been hers, what she'd made of things for herself.

"Until Katherine took even the little I had from me. I'm all for taking what she had and not giving it back now. I know that sounds mean, and is probably wrong..." But what else could she do? There was no way to get back home now, was there? Not at all.

Bethany Westmorland did something that she'd never done before and simply left the room, the little shed's door being left open, but she was clearly stalking away, lack of slamming or not. Gwen felt almost stuck in place, not certain if her words had been too offensive, or embarrassing or
something
, for this place. After a few minutes Beth came back in, carrying two silver Teletransport spheres.

"For Park Street. I don't know how that's going to go at all, once you tell the Vernors your plan, but know that I support you fully. I think the King does as well. No matter what happens, you won't be alone. You didn't do anything wrong, and I think it's fully reasonable for you to not have to give your life up to that... murderer." There was a stiffness to her shoulders, that spoke of expecting a fight.

From the Vernors no doubt. They were good people, but they loved their daughter too and, given that Katherine was right there in her head, it probably meant they'd have to fight to get her back. Since Gwen was planning on stopping that from happening, the whole thing might not be all that pleasant. Still, Bethany was right in her idea, doing it now, when they'd just confirmed things, would be easier than waiting. It occurred to her that they could also just not be told about it all, but that was just her trying to get out of it. The fact was, no matter what else had happened, their little girl was alive.

They deserved to know that was the case, no matter how much it hurt Gwen in the end.

She hurt a bit as they walked outside, and her mouth tasted foul and a bit gummy, since she didn't have toothbrush with her. Hopefully she'd get to clean up before the big confrontation with the Vernors. Her face felt swollen in places and it was hard to breathe, even if the damage wasn't that severe. Enough blows would do that to you after all. Cutting did it too. She'd had enough surgeries over the years, in her other body, to know how that went. Minor things added up over time.

They both hit the buttons on their spheres, with Gwen going first, then quickly walking forward, since Beth was going to be coming into the exact same spot. It was interesting to watch, because there was no other indication that anything had happened, except for the woman suddenly being in a new place. She was dressed as a Westmorland and Gwen pretty much was, even though she smelled a bit. Not too bad yet, just less than fresh. It had only been a day since her last shower, but the activity level had been high enough to make her sweat a bit. Protracted beatings did that to most people.

At the door they were met by Charles, who looked as dapper and conservative as always. Trim too. Kind of hot, Gwen realized, even if he
was
gay. She waved at him, which caused his face to fall.

"Miss Gwen... What's happened?" He waved back, but his indicated that she needed to explain the injuries. There was no good way to shorthand the whole thing, so Gwen nearly paused then just decided to leap in.

"I had to order myself beaten. I'll explain the rest later. I was pretty much mesmerized into a fantasy world and had to make certain nothing from that was left. No secret orders or anything." It was the truth after all, and oddly, the dapper man just nodded.

 "I do trust all is well? Do you require anything in particular? Medications or a healing generator?"

She nearly said no, but the Vernors were rich enough that they had three of them just for household use. The devices were still a puzzle to her, but they did seem to speed damage repair a lot.

"That might be a good idea, thanks Charles. If it could be placed in my bedroom? I think we can stay the night." She wasn't sure that would be happening, but giving that part away too soon wouldn't help her at all, would it? She also didn't know if the camp out thing started the next day or not. It turned out that they actually had five days to get in place for that. People did things slowly in this new place, but they were pretty good when it came to planning things out. It was kind of a shame, since if the Vernors didn't want her to stay, camping would have given her a place to live for a bit while she figured out where to go.

Then, she could do that anyway. If worse came to worse she was pretty good at charging crystals, and had heard she might be able to make a good living doing that. She tried to keep that in mind as they walked in. She didn't know how to ask for the Vernors to be brought to her, or if she should just go to her room and change first. It was a point she didn't have to bother with at all, since Charles had them both rousted to see to her before she even was all the way into the front room with Beth.

He did it by yelling, which was so different that everyone in the mansion that could hear him came running, a few of the servants being armed with whatever they could pick up.