A/N: pic to the side is the infamous Jasper. Although the character is a dick, I gotta say, Adrien Salaun, the model I cast as him, is rather nerdalicious. Hot, lanky guy with glasses, ladies with a nerd kink: you're welcome :P
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Gideon grinned in the darkness, stalking her latest prey. In the days since the attack on Luna, Doctor Cyr had asked all the Councillors to keep their ears open in their intakes to listen for who had been responsible for the Black Magic containment spell. The obvious suspect in Gidster's group was the witch Trinity, but Gideon knew better than to just assume and accuse. Too often the same has been done to her own kind and authorities have missed the real bad guys. Everything was proceeding as if the Camp were normal, except that the Councillors were running a few quiet, cautious interviews. And while no one was looking, Gideon also took out of her vastly shrinking pool of spare time, a few moments each day to come out to the Punt and study it.
The Punt was different somehow, it looked as if another hue of colour had been added to the mix of the Punt and Gideon could not simply shrug it off. Her Fury was too persistent for that. Her instincts were letting her know this could be important and Gideon just wasn't arrogant enough to go against her instincts. After 18 years of them keeping her alive and a step ahead of the executioners, she'd developed a trust in them that would take a lot to break. Those instincts had been telling her for the last ten minutes that someone was following her.
Whoever it was that had decided to try and hunt the hunter, they were doing a passable job of it, but were no where near good enough to actually escape notice. Even using magic to muffle the sounds of movement, Gideon could tell someone was back there, because whomever it was had failed to realize that the animals were going quiet around them while they stalked. Gideon had mastered the skill of moving through a forest like she was simply one of the creatures that belonged there. The man behind her had no such skill, and the scent of old spice lingering in the air as Gideon circled around told her who it was chasing after her.
Other predators growl as they hunt, the instinct too strong to suppress. A Fury like Gideon however, was the silent predator type, so Jasper had absolutely no warning when she flashed out of the bushes and tackled him to the ground. He let out a string of curses and they would have been more powerful than just words except that Gideon had zapped him at the same time she'd crashed into him. To use Magic, a person needs mental clarity as much as they need a spell and Portentum blood in their veins. It's very hard to use Magic after getting a Fury zap, even a mild one. It just left the neurons of the brain firing too randomly to let most Magickers function. A few of the more carefully trained were able to keep gonig even after a full on Fury zap. Jasper wasn't one of them.
Gideon found herself crouching over Jasper, her hand around his throat gently when one of the Head Councillors shone a flashlight on them. Of course, this had to be one of the Head Councillors that was relatively new and still skittish around the Fury. The Fury still close to the surface suddenly surged up and Gideon found herself overwhelmed with her own instincts for the first time in years.
Rolling to the side before the shock gun the Head Councillor fired could hit her, Gideon faded into the shadows around her, knowing that with the darkness of the Fury inside, she'd be harder to spot, even to Magic enhanced eyes. "He was following me, using Magic to shield his presence. I was defending myself." Gideon said from the darkness.
"Liar! You attacked me. I was just doing a perimeter when you..." Jasper tried to lie but the Head Councillor silenced him with a gesture. Just what Gideon needed, another freaking Curser. There were many, many names for Portentum creatures, some accurate, and some merely a description. A Curser was one of the Magic users, only their gifts were literal curses. On the flip side they were also known as the Blessers, because they could sanctify something as easily as curse it, but Curser sounds so much more bad ass.
"We shall let let Doctor Cyr figure out the right of this." Head Councillor Dana Alfredson muttered, gesturing for Gideon to reappear from the darkness sheilding her.
Gideon walked out of the darkness, appearing as human as she ever did and Jasper climbed to his feet. Thankfully the Head Councillor had kept the silencing curse in place, ensuring that the walk back was peaceful. Inside her own mind, Gideon was berating her Fury for reacting like a startled animal instead of a seasoned hunter and the Fury was responding in riddles.
I am not once what I was, nor are we yet that what we should be. Gideon's Fury side just kept repeating. To which Gideon could only reply For the love of all that is fun and sparkly in this world, please tell me we're not going through a growth spurt. We almost didn't survive the last one.
The Fury isn't a natural creature, and as such it's reaction to evolution can sometimes be wildly erratic and more than a little unpredictable. While others had to stumble through puberty with hormones, Gideon had to handle the physical changes while harbouring a homicidal maniac inside her own soul. The Fury were not designed to be controlled creatures, but Gideon had managed to reign in the worst of it, though back then she'd still be working for the wrong kind of people.
Before Gideon could establish if she was or was not in the midst of another Fury growth spurt, they'd reached the dragon's door. Winking at Jasper and Head Councillor Dana, Gideon knocked and opened the door as if she was expected. They all were. It was the perogative of the dragon to know who was approaching his chambers, so he just regarded the two Councillors while Dana waved and left.
"Why is it that whenever there's something interesting gonig on inside my Camp, that the two of you are inevitably involved?" Doctor Cyr demanded.
Gideon didn't even bother to reply. Which was a good thing because the second he could, Jasper started to shout out how she was weakening the Punt and how it looked different now than it had and it was all her fault. That the attack had to have been orchestrated by her to discredit Jasper and his kids. If he could have blamed her for global warming, he probably would have. The dragon just listened, eyes neutral and body language calm. Gids waited while Jasper ranted, but the moment he finally stopped talking, she spoke up.
"He followed me. Cloaked his location with a spell and got pissed off when I caught him." Gideon shrugged.
"She didn't even deny that she's messing with the Punt!" Jasper jumped on her lapse.
"I don't lie Jasper. Unlike you. I was messing with the Punt, but because I've already told Doctor Cyr how I noticed that someone else had been screwing with it first. I was investigating, tracking even. Things I have been more than trained enough to do." Gideon replied, the bored sound in her voice making Jasper snarl and the dragon give her a stern look. She knew better than to get the man worked up, but every now and again she couldn't resist needling him.
"Tracking! More like plotting more murder and mayhem!" Jasper yelled. Then he made a really big mistake, he spat at Gideon. With her Fury side so close to the surface, she seemed to surprise both men when she didn't simply explode into violence.
Gideon smiled and walked towards Jasper, the sway of her hips and sparkle in her eyes a warning that the Fury wasn't playing. Well, to her it was play but the weaker man might not like it so much. "Jasper, your words of hatred and biogtry have already caused one innocent girl to be tortured. Don't you think you should shut the f*ck up? Or do I need to show you how very far I can take this ride and still be within the legal definition of reasonable damage and recoverable health?" The threat wasn't made lightly. After enough years around the Fury, even Jasper had realized that she really didn't make empty threats.
Despite the hatred, disgust and anger in Jasper's eyes, he was the one to take the step back. "I know my mistake was in not telling Doctor Cyr what I was doing. However, I do have an explanation to offer. Alone."
"More lies." Jasper hissed.
"Jasper. Kindly leave." Doctor Cyr commanded softly and the boy found himself walking out. Even Gideon couldn't always fight off a Command from the dragon. Even though she was getting her request, Gideon didn't mistake it for favouritism. That simply was beyond the neutral dragon, though the image she had seen on the Fury chessboard reminded her that neutral is as evil as it is good, a fact that she had sloppily let slip her mind.
"One of my intakees has informed me that his record is not accurate. I was trying to determine how he could have made it through the Punt with false pretenses. What I have discovered is that someone else inside the Camp has been tappnig into the powers of the Punt, altering it and layering in something else." Gideon said the moment the door closed.
Doctor Cyr raised an eyebrow at her, curiosity instead of disbelief. "Explain." he commanded and Gideon felt it curl around her and slide off. He wanted the information, but he wasn't going to push just yet.
Gideon hesitated and sighed. "I don't know more than that. Virgil is here, saying that he is older than the file says. I KNOW he's not an Empath, there's too many indicators of something... stronger and more dangerous there. Though he seems to be good for the rest of the kids so I'm minding my peace on it. Someone, someone capable of covering all trace of themselves, is screwing with the Punt. Other than that..." Gideon shook her head in a negative fashion. She had a gut feeling, but there was no proof, not even a whisper of real suspicion outside of her instincts. And even the dragon would need more than that to act.
"I've summoned Virgil. You need not worry about him. I have assured myself that he poses no intentional harm to the Camp." Doctor Cyr said and Gideon felt her eyebrows raise. She hadn't realized that the dragon had taken an interest in the so called convict and it bothered the Fury more than she wanted to admit. Her metaphorical hackles were raised as they both heard the knock on the door that had to be Virgil. The convict opened the door and walked in, smiling softly at the dragon and seeming unsurprised to find Gideon glaring at him. He really seemed to enjoy provoking her and it shocked Gideon motionless when Virgil walked up to her and kissed her right in front of the dragon. Worst yet, Doctor Cyr just started to laugh.