Who: Halcyon and Grant (via phone)
Where: Crack House in NYC somewhere...
Why: Poor Halcyon. Pangs of guilt, whisps of hope, and
wants of family tearing her apart. She's got to clear
her name.
Grant, on the other hand, is his usual self, which
isn't nice at all. Bastard. ;)

*Start*

After watching the news the other night, Halcyon
noticed something vaguely familiar about a man who
chose to speak of her and her 'cause' - the freedom of
mutants to roam the streets, killers or not. Hey,
everyone makes mistakes in their lives, and it turns
out that those who are psychotic and more than
half-based in nature or animal forms make more than a
few mistakes. But all can be forgiving sometime, can't
it? Having procurred a nice cloned phone from a
certain friend of hers, Halcyon makes her way downtown
to a recently boarded up crack-house. Therein, she
passes discarded needles and waste and moves to a
quiet room. Therein, she dials a number that her
'friend' helped procure as well.

Grant answers the phone after a couple of rings.
"Sutton." he says boredly. He's somewhere outside.

After a pause, Halcyon tries to decide for herself why
she's called and what she'll say to the man who,
without Illyana's help, she has recurring nightmares
about. Clearing her throat, she whispers, "Didn't you
see the news the other night? The story on York?" Of
course, Halcyon hasn't always been smart enough to
wear a disguise and she certainly won't disguise her
voice.

Grant pauses a moment. Then he sounds kind of annoyed.
"Hang on a minute, willya? Lemme get rid of the call
on the other line." And he, rather decisively, it
seems, puts her on hold. But not for too long. "Hello?
Yeah, I saw the story."

"So," Halcyon says with a hint of hope in her voice.
She clutches the phone to her ear and slides down the
wall of the room she's in to the floor. Ignores the
cockroaches ambling around the floor. "You know, then,
that she's innocent."

Grant says without rancor, "Nope, we got her on
camera, we got witnesses, and she confessed. I believe
those three over good old whats-his-name shooting his
mouth off."

"B... but," Halcyon allows confusion to knit her
forehead into a furrow of lines. "She was crazy when
she confessed, and crazy when she was there. When they
were killed." Glancing out the window at her side,
Halcyon notices the next door neighbor glancing right
back at her. Spooked by his glassy eyes and
half-smirk, she stands and starts making her way up
the stairs of the building.

Grant sighs. "Yep, nuttier than a Christmas fruitcake,
but that doesn't mean she's innocent. It means she's
guilty but insane. They were gonna start her on some
meds but some doofus working for Magneto busted her
out before they could treat her." he says in a
matter-of-fact tone. "Anyone who thinks she's innocent
should talk to one of Dan Thompson's kids, ask 'em
about their daddy."

As she runs up the stairs, Halcyon replies to Grant
with a jumpy speech pattern and overly quick breaths.
"And, believe me, she'd do anything to have taken what
she did back. She's not the killer you're looking for.
Creed is. He has more powers than you're aware of. Far
more." She reaches the third floor landing, before the
stairs to the roof, and pauses.

Grant says curiously, "What are you /doing/ over
there, York? Yeah, Creed is a nutjob too, but that
doesn't mean /you/ don't need help. Powers don't mean
squat in this burg. We'll get him when he makes a
mistake, and he'll make a mistake."

Taking a moment to catch her breath, Halcyon sighs and
rubs her eyes. "For God's sakes," She whispers. He
knew it was her. Of course he did, you dolt! You
didn't even try to disguise yourself. Sigh. Victor
would have done it another way. So would Scott. In
fact, so would Warren. "You don't understand, he was
controlling me, just like the werewolf!"

Grant says patiently, "Who was? Creed?"

"Yes, yes, Victor." Halcyon starts to look around on
the third floor, checking rooms to see what, or who,
might be in there, finding only pidgeons. She settles
herself in the back room, the one with the sliding
door overlooking a porch, and sits herself next to a
nest of cooing babies. Watching the babies, Halcyon
smiles and leans her head back against the wall. "I'm
not bad. I'm really not bad."

Grant says firmly, "York, listen to me carefully. The
werewolf was being controlled by a powerful telepath.
Creed is a lot of stuff but he isn't a telepath. We
know this for sure, York, we're one hundred percent
sure. If you were controlled by Creed, it was because
you have a personality disorder that lets powerful
male figures control you, and you're probably going to
end up falling into the hands of yet another man who
wants to manipulate you, unless you get some /help/.
Do you understand that? Dr. Dork, after he broke you
out of the hospital, he fed you some line about a
group of mutants, right? And you bought into the line,
didn't you? Just like you bought into what Creed told
you - you bought into Creed's line so deeply that you
went and killed those people. Now you're buying into
this new guy's line." His voice is relentless,
inexorable. "But let's say you manage to break loose
of this guy, let's say you leave. It still doesn't
solve the problem. The next guy that comes along who
fits the bill, you'll latch right back onto their line
and bang, there goes York. She's gone. The only thing
that's left is a body that does what it's told."

The tiny cooing birds are forgotten as Halcyon listens
to Grant lecture on the other line. She hates
lectures. But his voice sounds like he really knows
what he's talking about, so she does listen for a
moment or two, and then stands up and starts pacing,
scaring a few of the birds to flit around the room.
This, of course, doesn't bother Halcyon in the least.
It's Grant's words that have forced her to walk the
same straight path from one end of the room to the
other. "No, its not like that at all. And if he's not
a telepath, then... Well, he's got some other power,
because I did what he wanted me to do, not what I
wanted to do. I didn't do anything of my own volition!
And... And just because this 'doctor' told me things,
doesn't mean they're not true! You don't even know me,
you can't say these things about me! I'm a regular
woman who just got taken and changed by Victor!"

Grant says gracefully, "Listen to yourself. You're
proving my point. A regular woman won't kill six
police officers because a man tells her to. York, I
/know/ you. I turned this city upside down, talked to
everyone who had seen you. I know where you like to
get coffee, I know where you like to dance. I know
your eyes, I know how you move. And Victor Creed has
no mutant ability to control you or anyone else.
Period. He played on your weakness, just like the new
man is playing on your weakness. Just as you will
constantly go and find other men to play on your
weakness until you get help for the problem. I've seen
it happen a million times before with a million other
women, just in lesser degree."

A noise spooks the bird-woman and she pauses in her
steps. Then, as the noise does not reoccur, she
continues speaking. However, now Halcyon is more wary
of her surroundings and is moving slower and with more
purpose. "You listen to me, Sutton. I am my own woman
and I do as I please. This is why I've not touched any
of your prescious humans since I've left Bellevue.
I've not done as much as pinch one of them who
displeased me." Pausing, she glances out the window
and simply sees rooftops and skyline. "And whatever
this doctor has said to me, has been said to me twice
as forceful by -female- doctors, as you call them. So,
there. Your theory is wrong."

Grant laughs. "If you're your own woman and you do as
you please," he says. "Then you killed those men
because /you/ wanted to. And you're as guilty as the
day is long. You can't have it both ways."

"I can and I will have it both ways," Halcyon says,
pushing away from the window and moving back to the
third floor landing, birds scattering at her feet. "I
am my own woman -now-, thanks to those doctor's help.
No thanks to Bellevue, where I deteriorated further
into lunacy. I wasn't my own woman -then-. Never was I
my own woman until just recently when I discovered
that I -could- be my own woman."

Grant now sounds bored. Golly, there's a lot of cars
downstairs. "Well, if you're all cured, there's no
point in you being a fugitive anymore. Come in
peacefully, show you're cured, and try to get on with
your life." he says easily.

Sensitive hearing picks up the sound of cars and
Halcyon starts to fidgit again. She pulls open the
door to the roof-stairs and starts climbing them.
"Have you called the cops on me, Sutton? I thought you
weren't with them anymore. You're more a slave to your
work than I'm a slave to my insanity."

Grant laughs a little, cheerily. "What did you call me
about, York? What did you want me to say to you?"

"You're out, Sutton, you're out! You should embrace
your freedom, now that you have it!" At the top of the
stairs, Halcyon presses her ear to the roof to tell if
there are any helicopters flitting about. "And let me
embrace mine. I'll never touch a hair on the head of a
human again, for god's sakes. Just tell them to stop
thinking of me, stop imagining the worst, and let me
get on with my life!"

Outside there is only the roar of the city. Maybe some
helicopters a distance away. Grant himself sounds
tremendously amused. "Heh heh...so I'm out far enough
that I should embrace my freedom, but in far enough
that they'll listen when I say 'the nutso cop killer
called me up and told me she's okay, call off the big
manhunt'. York - /nobody/ is that far in."

She's lost so many stupid t-shirts in her flits and
flights all about town, she's damned if she's going to
lose another. Halcyon pulls off her shirt and glances
down at her tank top. Good ol' low backed tank top.
She then ties her t-shirt around her arm tightly and
double knots it. Then, pushing open the door, a
winged, flame-haired Halcyon steps atop. "You could
have a heart. They could have a care. My life wasn't
all roses and heather before I came here, either. And
I'm sure it will never be again. What do you think
would happen to me should I be locked up again?"

Her sensitive ears can pick up sounds of a scuffle
from lower in the building. "You need help." Grant
says. "I know being locked up is rough for you, but ya
know, you're a grownup. You can face it if you really
want to get better, if you really want to never kill
again and never be manipulated again. I've /got/ a
heart, York, but excuse me for using it to sympathize
with Thompson's kids wondering why their daddy's
funeral is closed-casket instead of you whining about
how a scumbag like Creed did you wrong, how you're all
better now even though you're falling into the exact
same trap again, and how claustrophobic you are."

"For god's sakes, Sutton. You'll never see the big
picture for what it is. I could've been so much more,
if it weren't for your office... No, for -your-
jumping to conclusions. Why don't you talk to my
rapist? Ask him how fun it was, stuffing his cock into
every oraface he could find? Or the man who screwed me
over by taking my money and heart and leaving me with
a dead woman?" Yelling into the phone now, Halcyon
runs over to the side of the roof to look down and
judge the height she's now at. Then, a glance to the
sunny sky and she knows where and when to jump. "Or
the next would-be rapist, who, by chance, is still
alive and roaming the city, probably to hunt again?
Ask them instead of a copper's children that might
have been mourning their father any other day of the
week for any other reason. Ask those men what I meant
to them, and then mourn for me instead. Those children
still have a life, you worthless waste of a brain,
Sutton! Now you and your mouth has made sure that I'll
never have one of my own." Rearing back, she starts to
run, her wings spread to pick up the wind. Lastly, she
offers into the phone, "Perhaps I am a cold blooded
killer. Perhaps living like that for a while, killing
whatever I wish to kill for the pleasure and not the
hunt - maybe that's the way to go. Maybe my entire
life's goal, living by how nature dictated to the
birds to live, was wrong. Indeed, I'll live like a
human instead and kill for the sheer enjoyment. Good
idea, Sutton. Sleep well, tonight!" Halcyon was
circling while she spoke, but after flying over the
cop cars beneith herself, she drops the cell phone and
flits further into the great blue sky.

Grant's voice can be heard on the phone as it falls.
"Please, you think you're the only..." And that's it,
she'll never know what he was going to say now.

-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-vil end-

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