cold_hard_heart | Somewhere on the School Grounds, Early Sunday Morning. (Reply)

Kerrigan's cloak failed roughly thirty seconds after she'd dropped back against the wall. She wasn't sure which wall - she wasn't sure where. She was, however, sure that she didn't care, and that she hurt like an absolute bitch.

But she was alive. That was something. She guessed.

She could guess all she wanted, but that guess probably wouldn't last long.

This battle had been raging for hours, and Emma Frost still had the objective of taking the school for herself. And here was a chance she had been following; either Kerrigan would get in line with her plan for a real school for Gifted children, or Emma would eliminate one of the greatest threats to her own plan.

She picked her way towards Kerrigan, looking worn and weary herself. "Lieutenant? Report. What the hell is going on?"

"We lost detention," Kerrigan said, groaning a little as she shifted. "Little bastard have the run of the school now."

"Please tell me Rinoa is either dead or still passive," Emma groaned, pressing a hand to her head in unfeigned annoyance. "Because if anyone broke the work I did with her, we are all dead."

"Well, we're not dead yet. Come to your own conclusions," Kerrigan said. She had finally sat up, which was an improvement. "How many people have we got?"

"'We?' Less than I would like," Emma answered. "I say we take the school or the library for ourselves, and let them come to us."

Umbridge could find her own damn hidey-hole, as far as Emma was concerned. Or, hopefully, get beaten up by a bunch of angry children. Because that would be hilarious in Emma's view.

Kerrigan rubbed at her forehead. "We've had no orders," she said. She wasn't sure what to do, but if it was her choice... she didn't know. She just felt like maybe taking back the school wasn't the best idea.

"I'm no Head Girl any longer," Emma quipped. "I'm all grown up and I'm done taking orders, I'm giving them."

"And I say we assume control, as the High Inquisitor is clearly no longer fit for command."

And in case Kerrigan, well, disagreed, Emma had a few tricks standing by up her sleeve.

"You want to take the school with just the two of us?" Kerrigan asked. She looked mildly incredulous. "We'd be better off staking a claim on one of these buildings. They're all empty right now."

"Or just the library," Emma pointed out tranquilly. "They don't have anyone there who can really stand up to us, and I can always summon some reinforcements."

"The point being, Lieutenant, that Umbridge is not here and had abandoned her troops and her mental faculties. We've got a chance to put a new agenda in place, protect the gifted ones, and reduce casualties on both sides. We're the only chance of a cease-fire and saving the population of the island from genocide on both ends."

Kerrigan watched her as she spoke. Thought of Mengsk, and all the speeches he'd given like it.

And finally responded with a dry chuckle. "They won't come to you," she said. "You're terrible at faking kindness. It's done, Emma."

"I don't have to be kind," Emma replied bluntly. "I'm being completely honest; read my mind if you don't believe me. If someone doesn't step in now and take command, this place will be a wasteland. And I do not want that."

"Now are you coming with me or not?"

"You have to be kind if you want them to follow you," Kerrigan said. She had a knowing smile on her face now, and tiredness around her eyes. "They've just been oppressed for years. They have leaders. You don't have to be better than Umbridge, you have to be better than their leaders, and that won't happen unless you're kind. And you're not."

She pushed up. "We should leave."

Emma snorted in disgust. "Anyone who thinks the Wiggin boys are 'kind' is living in a delusion," she said. "Everyone on this rock knows I'm a telepath. That I know everything. I could have turned them all in years ago, and I chose not to because I did not give a shit about who won or lost so long as I got out of here alive, and they know it. I did my best to save those I could from complete mental breakdown in detention, even if the ungrateful children didn't want it."

"That earns me enough credit, I think. And yes, I am leaving. But I am not going to fight for a madwoman who has abandoned all sense."

"I fight for me."

"Do any of them know?" Kerrigan asked, tilting her head up.

"If they haven't read their little underground paper or heard the radio and figured it out by now, then if they try and oppose me I'll leave them as frogs for a few weeks until it's all sorted," she answered. "Jack was a double-agent before he left. Do you think any of them didn't know that I turned a blind eye to my lover playing with politics? It's not as if he could hide it from me."

"I am serious about this, Kerrigan. We can take this chance to make the school better, or run. But those are our only options."

"I'm going home, Emma." She'd only decided that just now, but she knew it was true. Suddenly now, in this mess, with everything going wrong, Kerrigan's mind was clearing. She had a mission. Something she believed in. "I like you, you know," she added. "You remind me of myself." She pushed herself upright. "But you can't even talk me into following you around."

"Be honest, Kerrigan," Emma retorted. "I can't talk you out of running is what you mean. And that's fine, God knows that's what I did when I graduated, and I only came back because I didn't have a choice."

"Everyone else is going to be running home," Kerrigan replied. "I thought I was going to be here for life, and yet-- you want to rule an empty island?"

"No!" It was rare that Emma showed actual displays of anger, as she had always considered it a weakness. "I want to make it a real school, somewhere that gifted children like we were can be fucking safe and not used as tools by sadists and monsters. I want to put it back together, and I wanted you to help me!"

She was not going to cry at the thought of being abandoned by one of the few people she knew would understand that. Shut up.

"Go home," Kerrigan said. "I'll come with you for a while, if you want. Just don't stick around here."

Emma's laugh was brittle. "You don't get it. If I go back there without having removed the bitch from power, I'm dead."

"I made deals with the devils, Kerrigan. The Hellfire Club gave me money, more telepathic training, and I made a deal with the worst of them all. Either I prove I can handle an assignment like Fandom, or I'll have an accident. It's that simple."

Kerrigan laughed softly, too, and didn't that hurt? She couldn't get herself to say Umbridge is probably dead already anyway; it made the fuzz in her head go too loud. But she could speak up and murmur, "Oh, Emma, everybody's got their name in a devil's book somewhere. My dad taught me that."

"Your father, or Mengsk?" Emma asked. "Although I suppose they're the same at this point."

She could hear the telepathic screams and rage, still, echoing all over the island. And knew that Kerrigan was right. Nothing would be left of this place in the end but teal deer and the crazy squid.

"If you don't mind, I think I'd rather telegram them the good news that Fandom is in chaos from whatever place you'll be shooting at people from," she decided finally. "I need a fucking vacation. If you're willing."

"Vacation sounds nice," Kerrigan murmured. She pushed herself up against the wall until she was sort of upright. "Somewhere quiet. No minds buzzing around every day like gnats. That'd be... kind of perfect."

Emma pulled out her phone with a sigh. "Give me one moment to call Callie. She was in this with me, she might as well get off the sinking ship herself."

Jack...her heart hurt. She'd felt what happened to Jack. "My only regret is I don't get to kill Umbridge or Bo myself."

"You get justice either way," Kerrigan muttered. She was finally steady again. "No use in dwelling. There never is."

[OOC: NFI, co-written with the amazing