Shadows Over Camp Darkness

Secrets and Doubt

It probably wasn’t a smart idea for Gideon to be keeping such a big secret from her friends, especially not from Virgil, but right now she wasn’t sure whom she could really trust. The truth was that Healer Tenu had kept Gideon in the Healer Ward, but not just so that Gideon could adapt to life with one eye; though that had been a struggle at first even if Gids would never admit that to anyone else. No, when Healer Tenu and Virgil had knocked Gideon out to the point where even a Fury’s natural defenses fail, something had been discovered and Gideon still didn’t know how to make heads or tails of it. Now she just had to figure out how to act on it, and how to keep everyone alive while she did so.

So this ridiculous plan of hers was serving a multifold purpose. She was getting her kids back into trusting and following her because she was giving them a justly earned reward. All while she also taught them an important lesson, though normally breaking the rules was a bad way to go about that. She was also potentially luring out this strange suitor that was all too interested in her. And Gideon wasn’t too proud to admit that they now had her attention as well. Whatever could compel a laboring Hell Cat into attack was no mere bit player, they had enough power to even make a Fury sit up and take notice. It would also give Gideon a chance to see what changes have already occurred to her now that she was the proud soul bonded pair with a grown Hell Cat, and if the Punt would still be blind to her actions. Finally it would let Gideon know if she could trust her trio. Virgil had already shown that he was willing to act against her wishes if he thought he had to. And that hurt in ways she wasn’t going to contemplate yet, especially since she knew now that it was actually entirely necessary. If he hadn’t done what he did, Healer Tenu wouldn’t have found what was found and things would have been more terrible later. But Virgil wasn’t the only one Gideon had to test, and it bothered her to doubt the loyalty of her friends.

Lisa and Xavier had hated her at one point in time, convinced that being a Fury had made her a lower life form of some sort, the kind of creature that putting down was an act of mercy. They had spent a summer forced into an Intake together and by the end of it they weren’t exactly friends, but tolerated her, and grudgingly respected her. It had taken a summer of working together to help the kids that their friendship had bloomed and cemented into what it was now. But Gideon knew that her friends were beginning to move on with their lives, leaving this foundation behind to pursue bigger and better things and that left her unsure of where their friendship lie in the scheme of things. It was probably wrong to test their loyalty like this, but the Fury couldn’t do anything less. It wasn’t in her genetic makeup to trust easily, and now that she had reason to doubt even one of them, it was time to test all of them. She just didn’t exactly know what to do if it turned out they weren’t on her side anymore.

“You’re going to sneak away from the most secure facility available to you, bringing six untrained, unstable teenagers as your only backup, and act as bait for something big, bad, and going bump in the night?” Lisa asked, voice sounding amused but not entirely calm.

“Yep.” Gideon nodded as she spoke, resisting the urge to smile. That still hurt, though she wouldn’t admit it. A lot of things were going to hurt for the next while, especially as she adapted to a few continuing changes. Being in constant Fury mod would be exhausting since she had to suppress the urge to go on a bender, cause some property damage, and draw a little blood. But if she squashed down the Fury mode entirely, then she was operating one eye short and having to adjust to life without depth perception; a definite disadvantage for someone in her current condition. Being hunted would make anyone want to be on their A game, let alone a Fury.

“And you want each of us to pitch in to make this as psychotically dangerous as possible.” Xavier added his two bits in, the golem having a quite serious role to play. She was asking all of them to risk being kicked out of the Camp, not a small favour by any means. And there was no guarantee that she could trust them to do it until after it was already done. It was one hell of a litmus test, only Gideon wasn’t expecting a simple red for acidic, blue for basic response. It was more of a yes they were trust worthy or no they’re not situation. And she had to know for sure because if she couldn’t trust them with this situation, there was a much bigger one brewing that she would not be able to rely on them for. And she desperately hoped that they would be there for her during it. There are some challenges in life even a Fury didn’t want to face alone.

“What do you need me to do?” Virgil simply asked intensity to his tone that only Gideon understood. The others didn’t know what he’d done to her, that he had set her up, but they had already picked up on her cold attitude towards him.

“I’ve figured out how I can theoretically get all my kids out of the Camp, but I need each of you for a part of this. See the Punt is keyed to ignore me, through my blood. So either I go around smearing my blood onto all of the kids, which would make us rather stick out in public, so I find a way to circumvent part of the Punt. That’s where Xavier comes in. I know for a fact that you can Ground and Center like no one else here. You’re a Golem; it’s a part of what makes you alive.” The fact that Gideon wasn’t entirely sure that the Punt would ignore her for much longer given the givens was kept to herself. It was keyed to ignore her as her blood was when it was made. But that was going to keep changing over the next little while, so her window of opportunity would be shrinking. “We know that the Punt goes into the ground to keep any Digger types inside as well, but it’s altered to exist within the living framework of the ground. Xavier is going to Ground in right next to the Punt, key into the exact type of soil and mineral content so that the Punt sees him as the exact same as the dirt. Lisa is going to hold him together as she opens a whole through him, allowing us to literally crawl out the Punt through him. Virgil, you get to play shadow. Let us get through and going, stay far enough back that even I can’t tell you’re there and maybe you’ll be able to spot whatever it is that wants my butt like a side of fries.”

The three of them stared at her like she had lost her mind and was babbling obscenities at them. Here was hurdle one of the plan, if they refused to go along with it then she wasn’t going to succeed. But it would also tell her that they weren’t willing to risk that big for her either.

“Is that all?” Virgil asked with a shrug.

“No. I’m also going to need to imbed an illusion into the golemi to mask them as the Intakee that they belong to, just so that the Intake House shows that they’re there if anyone comes looking.” Gideon elaborated a little more. Hurdle two, it was hard to do all of the things she was asking them to do. No one here was a fully trained Master at anything in their field yet. That could sometimes take a lifetime, sometimes a few years of hard practice. Neither of which any of the Counselors of the Camp could claim. Taking care of the kids just simply took too much time and effort to allow for that kind of specific training, which was why most Counselors only spent a season or two at the Camp.

“I can get my hands on a few illusion charms by tonight if you need. Gregor is pretty good at them; I’ll tell him I need some blanks so that I can sneak me and some friends into a club underage and he won’t bat an eyelash. The rest I’ll need a day or so to make up.” Lisa nodded, chewing her lip as she thought about it.

Gideon felt her remaining eyebrow quirk in amusement. “How exactly is it that Gregor will do this without asking for payment?” When her Witch friend blushed rosily Gideon didn’t hold back her laugh. “Way to go Lisa.” But smiling was a mistake as it pulled on the stitches in her face and made it throb. The two days of concentrated Healing had failed to return her eyeball, but had kept the facial scarring to a minimum. The rest of Healer Tenu’s efforts had gone into keeping Gideon’s shoulder intact from the Hell Cat’s bite, fighting off an infection brewing there and even minimizing the damage in Gideon’s burned forearms. She could now handle items again with only a bit of pain. Tenu had reminded Gideon repeatedly of the fact that it wouldn’t have taken two whole days if the Fury had allowed the Healer to key into the Fury’s energy signature years ago. Of course, the Healer wouldn’t have been able to do any more Healing than was already done, even if Gideon had relented back in the day. There were still limitations to Magic, especially where Furies were concerned.

“Don’t you dare give me grief over having a summer fling. Considering that your summer fling is sitting right next to you, a year and a half later.” Lisa pointed a finger at Gideon threateningly.

Gideon just smirked. “I can tease all I want, I had my Head Counselor panting after me for a year and never went there but you slept with yours this summer. That’s cute.”

“Shut. Up.” Lisa mock growled. It felt like old times again suddenly and Gideon had to fight the irrational urge to be emotional as she realized that they weren’t arguing with her. Her friends were still on her side, going to go along with yet another crazy plan. Maybe she had a chance of surviving this after all.