Vidare 05: Rage for Ecstasy

"Wake up!" Derrick cheered as he ran through the house. Ariana sat right up with Kai.

"What the fuck is he thinking?" The last bout of mental power she had used had infected her with the very rage she had given to the entire ward of the hospital. Hopping out of bed, she put her clothes on and swung the door open wildly. Her breathing trembled with sheer fury as she held the doorknob, the metal creaking and groaning under her grip. "Derrick!" She screamed with a cruel voice.

Kai followed right behind her and put his hands on her back. "Breathe. You're not actually mad at Derrick. It's the backlash." Kai said the words but didn't believe them.

Tightening her fists she took deep breaths. Ariana let out a roar so loud that the whole house was up in an instant. Miles rushed downstairs with Jason right on his tail. The cabal quickly gathered in the living room to find Ariana panting with rage. "Derrick! Get back!"

Ariana started running for Derrick, he froze as he saw the look in her eyes. Her muscles tightened as she readied herself to punch Derrick. With every step she got closer and closer to her target. A loud thunk hit the back of her head, and her vision went dark.

"Oh fuck!" She woke up, putting her hand to the back of her head. Miles stood over her with a large smile. "Let me out of here!" She screamed. Miles had her strapped to a metal chair, and the more she tugged, the tighter her bonds became. Rigged into the chair was a pulley that Miles had strapped onto it, smiling as it tightened around her.

"I don't think so. We're gonna sit here until you calm the fuck down." Miles said calmly.

"I'll fucking kill you!" She screamed as her feet stomped the floor.

"It's okay. I hope you do." Miles chuckled. "As far as I can tell, you've got a while before your head turns back to normal. I'm gonna get to know you a little better."

Ariana had her hands balled, her face beet red with rage, and her veins popping from her neck. "I should have killed you the minute I met you. You fucking coward. We should have left you in that hospital to die." Her voice was poison to his ears, and silently he tugged back the urge to let her cruelty show.

Miles leaned real close and rolled up his sleeves to reveal the large scars he had running up his wrists. "Is that why you took me in?" He sat across from her. "I seem to remember some beautiful words you had." He looked around her room. "Some words about fate, about the path we choose."

"You didn't have a fate. You were a scared little boy who ran away from Daddy and took the easy way out." Ariana grunted and started to laugh. "I used to pity you until I found out what an asshole you were." She kicked the chair she was tied to as best as she could with her position.

"Sorry for hitting you in the back of the head you potential child murderer." He threw his arms up and laughed. "When you're done with your magical period we can get right back to business, and I'll take any apology you can muster."

"How do you know I won't just use my gifts and snap your neck?" She smiled wickedly.

Miles cocked his gun and pointed it at her. "Just try it." Ariana chanted harder and harder as she attempted to bring her power to the edge of her skin. "No blood, no dick, no bones, none of your stupid rocks." Miles chuckled.

Ariana's chanting got louder until he stepped forward with a large sock and jammed it into her mouth. He grabbed a roll of duct tape and pulled it with a horrible scrape, he taped the sock into her mouth. "Hush dear." He sighed. "Lemme tell you a story."

Miles sat back and put his hands behind his head as he stretched out on the floor. "When I was a little boy, I was a lot like Derrick. I was smart, I was strong, I had a lot of nifty skills." Ariana growled against her gag. "Until I hit my twenties. I was stuck in this little apartment with two coke addict roomies who never had a dime they didn't spend on the powder. I tried it a few times, and it was fine, just not my thing you know?"

"One night after a fifth of tequila and a heavy conversation with my partner, I got a little down on myself. I think it's easy to say I didn't handle it well." He said, pointing to the scars. "I woke up to the rest of you, minus the kid of course, standing around my bed with Maggie from the Chakravanti." He smiled as he pondered the memory.

"I'll never forget the way you looked at me. You were so serene." He looked up and suddenly jumped to his feet as he saw blood trickling from around the duct tape and freely running down her chin. Ariana began to blur as she moved faster than he could keep his eyes on, her hands quickly cutting the rope on the chair by rubbing it against an edge. She grabbed the metal chair, swung it, and hit Miles in the side of the head with a scream. His body went limp as it hit the ground.

Ripping the tape from her face she stood over him, grabbing a dagger from her altar and raising it above her head. Garrett, Kai, Jason, and Derrick burst through the door and saw the look in her eyes. Jason threw his hands forward, screaming as tears poured down his face, and her body was thrown by an invisible wall of force into the wall.

***

"Whuu.." Ariana garbled speech started to fall out of her mouth as she drooled heavily.

"Hey, don't move." Kai put his hand to her face. "You're gonna be just fine."

"I'm all floaty." She mumbled.

"Yeah I bet you are." Standing beside Kai was a man in a lab coat, his eyes looking over her as he prepared a large shot with blue liquid. "This is Dr. Wheeler. He's been treating you for the last two weeks."

Ariana gave him a puzzled look. "Weeks?"

"Yeah baby. It's been two weeks. We gave you enough sedatives to make a werewolf into a cuddly little stuffed animal." He smiled as Dr. Wheeler took the injection and slid the needle into her arm. Ariana gasped at the pinch of the needle but her expression settled back into a calm smile. "The sedative is going to last the next day, and then after that, you'll be just fine."

Sitting up she grabbed him by the shirt. "Derrick!" She screamed, her eyes wide in terror as the images burned themselves into her mind.

"He's just fine." Kai excused the doctor from Ariana's room and came back to her bedside, sitting by her.

"I almost hurt him." Tears dripped past her cheeks.

"But you didn't." Kai took hold of his rosary and wrapped it around his hand. Taking her hand and pressing his other on top of it, he began to mutter a prayer.

"Are you healing me?" She asked sloppily.

"No. Just praying for you." He said quietly. He stayed by her bedside as she slept that night, and unbeknownst to her, as he had done every night since she was drugged the first time. Kai had used his power the minute it came back to keep himself without sleep, drinking coffee and pounding energy drinks as he spent the days watching her trance.

As Ariana shook awake with a twitch, she saw Kai still sitting with a smile as the sunlight poured into the room. "You okay?" She asked as she looked at his tired and red eyes.

"I could use some sleep. It's been..." He checked his phone. "About fifteen days." He laughed. " You mind if I crawl in there with you?"

"Not at all." She smiled at his kindness and watched as he stripped off his clothes to reveal his tattoos. Crawling into the bed, Kai put an arm around her and started to relax. "You stayed with me for fifteen days?"

"What can I say? Pretty girls are my weakness." He started to breathe heavily, and Ariana just sat stroking his hair as she let the sedative work its way out of her system. At two in the afternoon, she stood and worked her way out of the bed and searched for clean clothes. On the wall was still the mark where Jason had thrown Ariana with a blast of energy she had never seen from him before. Jason was usually unable to put together a powerful ritual even with hours of prep, but the image of his eyes leaking tears as he thrust his arms at her.

Walking downstairs she saw Miles already brewing coffee for her. Setting a mug on the counter, he poured some of the dark liquid. "Hey I had to throw out the almond milk but I got you another carton. You want sugar with it?" He asked casually.

"Uh...yeah." She saw her phone plugged into the counter outlet and pulled it off, opening the last two weeks of messages. "Listen Miles-"

"Take a shower, we have to pick up Derrick from school soon." He interrupted her.

"Oh uh..." She nodded. "Right." For the next thirty minutes she only sat and poured over her messages.

"Get your shoes." Miles said to her as he grabbed his keys. Ariana stumbled her way to the car and took a seat in the passenger side.

"Miles..." She said softly. "About what I said."

"Don't." He said sternly as he started the car. "Don't go telling yourself it's your fault. Don't even start thinking that you have any problems with me. You said what you said, it wasn't you."

"Miles it wasn't fair of me to say all that." She tried regardless.

Miles got to the main road and nodded. "Yeah, and you've been there for me when my head is fucked up. More than once. Hell, I seem to recall someone pulling those blades back out of my hands a second time." He looked at her. "We're even."

"What the hell am I supposed to say to Derrick?" She looked at him horrified. "Sorry kid, your Mom's crazy?"

"He knows about the backlash. That fight he had was entirely under it."Miles said coolly.

"I can't possibly give him an example as an adult that it's okay for someone to attack him like that!"

"Then don't Ari! Own your shit. Tell him and make it crystal clear that if it comes down to it, it's his life first. You can't back down and show him you're too scared to love him though." Miles turned onto the street leading up to the school. "Tell him you love him, tell him you're sorry and scared. Tell him how much it hurt you to see that look in his eyes. I mean honestly!" He braked hard as he was almost bumper to bumper with another car. "Do you really think his Dad took the time to tell him that he wanted to change?"

Ariana went silent as they pulled up to the school and waved to Derrick who was waiting on the sidewalk. Derrick ran over and opened her door with a big smile on his face. "Mom! Are you back to normal?" Ariana had never heard Derrick refer to her like that, but stepping out of the car she gave him the hardest hug she could. "Boy, you need a shower." He laughed.

"I really do." She smiled as she hugged him tighter. "Listen Derrick I gotta tell you something." Leaning down so she was at his eye level, she looked him in the eyes and put her hands to his face. "The backlash from getting Garrett out of the hospital made me go into a rage. I absolutely hated how it made me feel. It was horrible. I couldn't feel anything else but anger. I hurt you emotionally, and I tried to hurt you physically. I need you to promise me something."

"Sure." He said quietly.

"I need you to promise me that if your life is ever in serious danger at my hands or anyone else's, I need you to promise that you're going to run away." She waited for him to answer but he just had a serious look in his eyes.

"I can't. I have to protect you all one day." Ariana's eyes filled with tears as she pulled him close for another hug, and helped him into the car. Derrick talked about his school work, his classes, Rema, and even a boy he couldn't stop staring at in the halls, all as Ariana wiped her face of tears.

"I'm so proud of you." Miles said with a smile. "Are you gonna ask the guy out?"

Derrick laughed heartily. "Hell no. He's cute but he has a lot of jerks for friends. I want a sweet guy."

Ariana smiled as they got out of the car, and led him into the house. "I'm gonna go take a shower, and we can do your homework together."

"Actually Mom..." He got close to her with a confused look on his face. "Is it...okay if I call you that by the way?" Ariana just nodded and smiled. "Rema is coming over in about an hour, is it okay if I do my homework with her?"

"Of course. I'm gonna go shower and be sure not to wake up Kai okay? Leave the door open with just a crack!" She called to him as he bounded upstairs and started to clean up his room.

Marching herself upstairs, she went to the bathroom and started the shower. Her emotions were still blocked by the side effects of the sedative, but as the water got warmer she stripped and curled into a ball in the shower, crying silently as the warmth ran down the drain. She washed clean all of the sweat, drools, tears, and filth that her skin had acquired over the last two weeks of her drugged state. "Oh Ari, what the hell are you supposed to do?"

Shutting off the shower and drying her body, she crossed into her room and dressed without waking Kai, stepping right to Jason's door and gently knocking. "Come in." He said through the door.

"Hey there, do you have some time to talk with me?" She saw him bookmark his book and set it aside.

"Yeah what's up?" He sat up and smiled, patting the bed.

"I wanted to apologize to you. I didn't mean to scare you like that." Jason just shrugged. "I wanted to ask you if you've ever had a blast of power like that before?"

At this he went silent, looking nervously at his book. "Keep it between us?" She nodded and waited for him to gain the courage to talk as he fidgeted with his hands. "I thought my fingers and hands were going to explode. I felt like there was this wind behind my back when I did it. Before I've always needed a knife or a chant. Ever since, I tried to replicate it and it's like I can't."

"What does your avatar say?" She used the technical terms with Jason, where she would call them her gods, or with Kai, an angel.

"It's not really like that between us. We don't...talk. He just sends me all of these weird feelings. It's really hard to sort out what is PTSD and what is just my anxiety."

"Or what's your actual spirit talking to you." She finished.

"Right. After that...it's like everything went super quiet." Jason looked around his rooms. "I tried all the rituals I know, I tried centering myself, I tried dreaming. It's like they don't want to talk to me."

"That sounds incredibly frustrating." Ariana hadn't ever experienced a silent period with her personal spirit, but the idea of being without it's guidance was uncomfortable at best.

"Anyway. I'll be okay, it just means more research. Oh, Garrett wanted to see you by the way. He said he had something for you."

"I'll go talk to him. Before I go though, is there anything I can do to make up for what I did?" She put her hand on his and had a sad smile, her eyes still red from crying.

"No Ari, it's okay. No one in the group blames or hates you. Also, you sat through two seasons of Star Trek with me while you were drugged as shit. It was actually kinda nice to have company." He smiled sweetly at her.

Ariana pulled him into a tight hug and dismissed herself from her room, heading to the basement where Garrett was busy clacking away on his keyboard. "Sup nerd." She poked him in the side.

"Hey crazy lady!" He stood up and hugged her. "How are you feeling?"

"A lot better. I still feel wonky from the drugs they gave me but it's wearing off. Tomorrow I'm gonna crank one out and get my body back to normal."

"Good old Ariana the chronic masturbater." He smiled.

"Jason said you had something for me?" She leaned over his shoulder.

"Yes I do actually! Concerning the letter I found. I found something else, but my brain hadn't really worked it out or put it together." Garrett tapped his keys and pulled up a large design. The image was of a large spiral cut into a sandy looking rock, with the design etched perfectly.

"What is it?" She asked curiously.

"No idea. I put out some feelers and I'm waiting to hear back, but right now it's a mystery. It came attached to the other two files though. Maybe it's a clue to whoever Vic and Chris are." He looked at it intently. "I can tell you this. The letter I found was scanned on a super old piece of crap."

Ariana frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It was scanned on one of the nineties giant messes of scanners that people started to bring home. Super ancient by today's standards. That means whoever put out the letter, did it within the last thirty years. I have no idea where they put it online, but I do know it was public for about a year before they took it down." Garret smiled proudly.

"Why would they take it down?" She muttered.

"Maybe they found each other. Maybe whoever took the photo was afraid of something. Who knows?" Garrett shrugged. "In the meantime, I'm tracking down the spiral and also looking for the origins of the photo."

"Good work man. How's your head?" She patted his shoulder.

"Like a car crash. I was delirious for days but conscious. My mentor gave me these little pills that will help the nerves I absolutely destroyed when I used my program. Until then I'm under supervision which is kinda annoying."

"Tonight you wanna do a movie with Jason and I?" She asked patiently, hoping he wasn't still mad about his finger which had a small brace on it.

"I get to pick." He said confidently.

"Hell no, I get to pick." Ariana shoved him gently.

"You're gonna watch every one of the Mission Impossible flicks so help me god." Garrett chuckled.

"Your brain is fucked up." She said back.

"Yeah yeah I know I'm com-"

"No Garrett, you're bleeding from your ears." She pointed and caught a look at himself in the mirror, he groaned and grabbed a paper towel, dabbing at his ears. "Is that normal?"

"They said it would happen from time to time until the medications were done. As long as I don't get my head smashed I should be okay."

Ariana hugged him as she walked back upstairs, hearing Rema and Derrick laughing in his room. She opened her door, went back to Kai's side, and stripped off her clothes to crawl back in bed with him.