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Note: Written in response to the (Let Them Think About It) story challenge posted on Alternate Timelines. References events from issues #40 and #41.
Note 2: Anything you see with { } marks indicate the character is using internal thoughts as opposed to speaking aloud.
The clang of the rusty prison cell door opening just wide enough to allow the guard to hustle his prisoner through made a marked counterpoint to Feral's hissing as she bared her needle-sharp teeth.
Another low growl began to form at the base of her throat, and she swung at the guard, landing a solid right hook to his jaw. He swore as he pinned her arms behind her back. In retaliation, she kicked him, but it was ill timed and off-balance, and she failed to connect. To add to her disappointment, he ignored her efforts to get a rise out of him.
Her energy momentarily expended, Feral was unceremoniously dumped into the waiting cell.
"Back in your cage, pussy-cat, right along with the other one. Kinda gives new meaning to the term 'cat-fight!' " He laughed loudly at his own little 'clever' joke. "Now, why don't you two play nice." Heaving a relieved sigh, he slammed the cell door shut and stomped off down the corridor, rubbing his throbbing jaw.
Feral snarled, grasping the bars of the cell, the hard metal cold beneath her fingers, and stared at him until he was out of sight. Making her way to the far-left corner, she collapsed onto the metal bunkbed, folding her arms underneath her head and turning to face the other occupent, her sister.
"Isn't this how we started?" Thornn sighed, rolling over on her metal bed and revealing one eye to be swollen shut with a dark ring of black and blue around it, making it look as if she'd put racoon makeup. Her amber-colored eyes were slitted open, waiting for her younger sibling to make the first move.
"This is your fault, you little milksop." Feral muttered. "We wouldn't even be in this mess if you hadn't suddenly gotten all guilty!" Her amber eyes narrowed and her white-orange streaked hair fell in loose snarls around her face as she moved to stare into her sister's eyes.
"Same old song, different tune. It's never your fault, mi chica," Thornn sighed, her eyes closing again.
"My fault? Oh, really? Let's see, who was it sung like a bonita bird for the cops? Who used her one phone call to get Cable and his little band of merry spoilsports in on the action? If I recall correctly, and I think I do, it wasn't me. I know you can hear me, so don't pretend you can't."
"Well, at least you got your facts straight." Thornn shrugged. "And if it had been up to you, you'd never take the blame for anything, ever."
Feral stared at her sister, seeing exactly what she'd always seen. Her older sister's coloring was more brown than orange and favored a tiger-stripe pattern, but other than that, the features were of both were unmistakable. Although they certainly weren't twins, they had the same cat-slit amber eyes, the same pointed ears, and the same nose and mouth.
She drifted back to her memories of how she'd gotten into the whole mess...
***Flashback***
Without paying too much attention to the details of the news reports, she knew exactly where she'd find Thornn and the rest of the combined X-Force/NYPD posse: the place where it had all began in the first place, a crumbling brownstone in the south Bronx, their old house.
Feral pulled her coat around her shoulders, and moved from one alley to another, figuring she had a better than even chance of getting there before anyone found her first.
Once she reached them, it was laughably easy for her to beat the combined X-Force/Cable/NYPD group to the punch. With the added advantage of being familiar with the way Cable planned things, she just laid her plans accordingly.
Quickly, she scaled the walls of the rickety wooden stairs that led up to the second story. From there, she leapt to the vaulted rafters and crouched, waiting until they passed beneath her. Feral wanted to laugh at the way they 'sneaked' in, but managed to contain herself, not wanting to give away her position.
But, even bumbling idiots could get in your way, and they did with Feral. She ended up having to take Jose as a hostage, even though she didn't want to hurt him.
---flashback to much earlier in Feral's life---
Our father abandoned us when I was six, and Mama said it was because it we had one kid too many, so it was Carolina's fault that drove him away. Carolina died from falling down the stairs when I was supposed to keep an eye on them. She wasn't pushed down them stairs! Matteo was chasing my pigeons and fell off. I didn't push him, but he just couldn't hold onto the ledge for long. I let him fall.
---end flashback to much earlier in Feral's life---
Feral figured that eventually she would have managed to kill all her former teammates in X-Force, and she certainly had given it her best shot, but they'd made her dance to their tune in the end. The thing that made her choke was that Thorrn bought into it the whole stupid game, and she accepted it, damn her.
---flashback to much earlier in Feral's life---
Harry Bellinger was another story. He was a drunk, a drug addict, and constantly grabbing after us. I guess he had a 'thing' for furry chicks, not that I knew what being a mutant meant back then. I do now, but who the hell cares? I claimed it was self-defense, which was plausible enough, and Harry got what he deserved.
Our mother? With Harry gone, she got mad, and killed my pigeons. Now, those pigeons were just dumb birds, but they were the only things that wanted me around or needed me. So I killed her. End of story.
---end flashback to much earlier in Feral's life---
Thornn accepted being arrested and charged with murder--or at least being an accomplice to murder. Feral couldn't understand why she'd had gone along with Cable's plan to flush her out of hiding, to make them both tell their sides of the same story.
For that matter, why had Thornn abetted Feral's plan to keep them both from being captured in the first place, when Harry's body was discovered and the whole mess surfaced? If she had fought back, if she hadn't gone along with everything, then they wouldn't be sitting in a jail cell together, cooling their heels.
***End Flashback***
"It wasn't my fault they died," Feral whispered suddenly.
"Do you mean Harry, or the rest of the family?" Thornn asked.
"Yeah, it was just a tragic accident."
"I didn't kill our family either." Thornn shrugged. {Maybe I should have been watching her more carefully; maybe I should have seen this coming. I was the older sister, and I was responsible for my younger brother and sisters. I just wanted to go outside and flirt with a good looking guy. And Jose wasn't just any old New York cop. He was a friend. Then everything just hit the fan...}
"Yeah right, if you didn't kill them, then why are you here with me in this friggin hellhole? Maybe you didn't kill Harry, and our momma, but you didn't do anything to stop the murders. Which is just as bad, or maybe worse" Feral growled. {Jose, Sammy, they all tried to talk me into telling them the truth. Of course, Lucia had her own side of the story. I told them the truth. It wasn't my fault that wasn't the truth they wanted to hear.}
"Oh come off it!" Thornn growled. "It's always been so much easier for you, always blaming someone or something else. A bad situation, a bad homelife, your mama on coke, too many kids, always high on drugs or alcohol, or both. And when our mutant powers manifested, of course, it wasn't your fault: you were a mutant. Why do you always point the finger?"
"Well, in this case, I know who to blame! This is all your fault! And you can stop with this �holier than thou� attitude, already!" Feral shouted.
"For once in your life, would you accept responsibility for your actions!" Thornn shouted back.
"I'm here. Ain't I? I'm in a correctional facility, I'm accepting the consequences of my actions. If you're expecting to admit that I'm sorry for murdering 'em, don't hold yer breath..." Feral snarled.
Thornn grudgingly had to admit that, for once, she had managed to get something through Feral's stubborn skull, and she hadn't had to beat it into her sister with her fists. Instead, her weapon of choice had been mere words, but it had worked. And as rotten and miserable as it made her feel for having to do it, someone had to do it.
{I don't know diddly squat about modern pop psychology, but this is what they use interventions for. Of course, this is too late to 'save' anyone. God, I am such a fool. Hey, it was worth it, I guess.} Feral sank back into her bunk pulling the sheets up around her chin, wondering why she had allowed Thornn to use her as a verbal punching bag.
In a back corner of her mind, she knew there was no way in hell she was would allow Thornn the satisfaction of seeing how it affected her. {I ain't sorry the family's dead. Not a bit. Harry had it coming, and as for Matteo and Carolina, those were just accidents. As for our mother, she had it coming for being a drug addict and for killing my pigeons. No matter what Lucia may think.}
Feral briefly debated whether or not to tell Thorrn that she was wasting her breath and that it wouldn't do any good, since they were both stuck here with a prison sentence hanging over their heads. She even considered telling her sister that she understood why Thornn had done what she'd done, but the impulse faded when she heard Thornn's shallow breathing in the bunk below her which meant she had probably fallen asleep.
"Lucia?" Feral whispered, ignorning the single, salty tear that crept treacherously down her face.
She bit her lip and growled a harsh 'good night,' waiting a few seconds just to see if there would a reply from the other bunk's occupant, but there was no response. With a sigh, she turned over and fell asleep herself.
The End
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