Bye Bye Birdie *HF*
By LeBeau
Rhiannon LeBeau tossed and turned in her sleep. Technically, with the healing factor she had gained when she became The Crow's avatar, she didn't even need to eat or sleep, but since those two activities were among her favorites, she did them anyways. Tonight, she wished she'd done otherwise. The moment she fell asleep, she found herself dreaming of a place she didn't want to be. Somehow Rhiannon knew it was more than a dream, especially since a similar situation had happened before.
A large bridge was all that separated the afterworld from nothingess. One one side of the bridge, the afterworld promised green fields, shady trees, and clear blue skies. Several people happily walked and ran across the fields, laughing and talking. One the other side, nothing but grey mist streched on endlessly. Rhiannon was standing on the middle of the bridge. The last time she had tried to cross, to finally go to the afterworld and die, Diablo, Lord of Hell, made it clear that she was not allowed to go anywhere but Hell. Rhiannon, with the help of her friends, ended up making Diablo regret it, but then she decided to cheat death a little longer and stay "undead." That was nearly two years ago, and the matter seemed to be resolved. Until tonight. Corbin the crow, her guide during the entire ordeal, sat on a lamppost on the bridge, looking around uneasily. "I was afraid this was going to happen..." he muttered.
"What's going on?!?" Rhiannon exclaimed, her stomach churning as an old, bent woman stepped out from the mists.
The old woman hobbled toward Rhiannon, tsked, and cackled, "You've been breaking the rules, little girl."
Rhiannon snorted. "Yeah, I have a tendency ta do that... but which ones are you talkin' about in particular?"
At that moment a large black cat materialized at Rhiannon's feet. "Uh, Phantom what th' hell are you doin' here?"
{{Well technically this is a dream... and I'm a telepath... you figure it out. I'm here to make sure you don't get into too much trouble.}}
The old woman glared at Phantom. "You aren't invited, Fleabag! Scat!"
Phantom's eyes began glowing fiercely. {{You wanna make me, old lady?}} A telekinetic aura surrounded him, and Rhiannon tried not to snicker. Phantom's slight pseudo-Italian/New York-Jack Nicholson accent, God knew where he got it from, was even stronger now that he was angry. Rhiannon's mood changed immediately as the woman pointed at Phantom, who meowed in pain and passed out. Shortly afterwards he disappeared.
"IF YOU SO MUCH AS HURT A SINGLE HAIR ON HIS BODY I WILL RIP YOUR ARMS OFF AN' BEAT YOU WITH 'EM, BITCH!!!" Nobody messed with Rhiannon's cats.
"I'd like to see you try, dearie. He's not hurt. I merely kicked him out of your mind. That's what he gets for being where he's not wanted."
"Yeah, okay, right.... Now would you freakin' tell me why I'm here? I ain't getting any younger, ya know."
"Nor are you getting any older. The point is, Rhiannon, you've broken all the rules. You do realize that once you took your revenge on Belladonna and the Assassins, you were supposed to die again, right? You aren't supposed to remain in the land of the living once your purpose is gone."
"I got plenty of purpose! ...I think..."
"Be that as it may, the purpose I'm speaking of was to make things right, which you did, if on a larger scale than necessary, when you destroyed the Assassins' Guild."
"What's that matter? They've already regrouped anyways... Good as new, only minus that dumb ho Belladonna... No big loss there."
"You seem to be missing the point. You can't keep doing this. Your time is over, Rhiannon LeBeau. There can be only one avatar at a time, and there are others that need to be avenged. Give another lost soul the chance you got. That, or you can go around avenging everybody for the rest of your 'life'."
"Who are you anyways? For all I know, Diablo's up to something again."
"I've been called many things over the years.. Sekhmet, Nemesis, Ate, Badb, you name it.. Let's just say I'm in charge of people like you. Corbin works for me, just as a work for the Big Guy."
Rhiannon assumed by "Big Guy", the woman meant God. Shrugging, she said, "So all this time I've been alive, no other murdered people have gotten to come back?" The old woman shook her head in response. "Oh... I didn't know. Hey, it's not like you guys passed out a 'Being an Avatar for Dummies' handbook or somethin'... Those people should get a chance... But, as much as life sucks sometimes, it's kinda grown on me. I don't want to die for good." Rhiannon looked down, ashamed of admitting a fear.
The crone looked thoughtful. "Well... I must admit, for the time that you did have the powers of The Crow, you used them well... Despite the name, The Hellfire Club does occasionally do good... And I know you're good at heart... Tell ya what... I think I can pull a few strings with my boss... And I think I can get you another chance at life.. minus The Crow's influence. You'd just be a normal, live mutant again. I believe you've earned it."
"I can't be a normal mutant! I've got a lousy power and I'll just get killed again! Almost all the other Outer Court members have more power than i do! Not to mention the Inner Court."
"You've got powers other than charging objects... You're still young yet... You just might gain abilities that will give you more power in the Hellfire Club... But if you're going to complain, maybe you'd be better off finally at rest."
"Uh, no... I'll manage... without good powers, I mean.... So now what do I do?"
"Say good-bye to The Crow."
Corbin squawked and flew to Rhiannon, landing on her shoulder. "I'll miss you, kid. In all honesty, you're my favorite avatar so far. You remind me of me, I guess... But the old lady's right... I need to help other people like you. I'll visit you whenever I can, in your dreams." He rubbed his shiny, feathery black head against her cheek, then flew away into the mists.
Rhiannon tried to fight back tears. It wasn't just that she would miss Corbin as a friend, but the bird was literally a part of her. They'd been linked so that they shared thoughts, and felt eachother's pain and happiness. It was like losing a small part of her soul, and Rhiannon hated it. But she wouldn't cry in front of the woman. She couldn't.
"Alright then, back to the living with you," said the crone, "though I must warn you, you're going to be mighty weak when you first wake up...I'd stay in bed for a few days, were I you.... But anyhoo... So mote it be." The old woman snapped her fingers and everything went black.
Rhiannon then woke up drenched with sweat. Phantom calmly sat by the foot of the bed, watching her with worry. {{What happened? Stupid hag... If I knew who she was I'd mess her up.}}
"Phantom, do me a favor. Bite me."
{{Huh?}}
"Just bite me. On the arm. Don't ask." Phantom rolled his eyes and complied. "OW!!! Fuck! I felt pain... Phantom, I felt pain... I'm alive."
{{Well no shit. What'd she do, take away your BRAIN?}}
"I'm serious, Phantom... I'm normal. No more Crow... She let me live again, but I'm just a regular mutant now."
{{Good. That damn bird pissed me off. I don't know why you didn't let me eat him.}}
"No it's not good! What am I going to do? I used to be this major powerhouse.. practically unbeatable... Now all I can do is throw exploding pieces of paper? Whoop-de-freakin'-do! How am I supposed to be Headmistress when half of my "students" could whoop my ass without breaking a sweat now? I'm going to completely lose what li'l respect they mighta had for me..."
{{I was unaware those brats had any respect for anything...}}
"well maybe they didn't... but they did what I said most of the time 'cause they knew I could beat 'em up! Now I'm not that powerful!"
{{Sure you are! I mean, just because I could kick your ass now, that doesn't mean you're weak!}}
Rhiannon glared at Phantom. "I don't know why I don' just feed you to a gator. The old lady said I had other powers, that I was 'young yet.' What's that mean? Don't tell me I'm gonna go through MORE mutations.. she said this new ability'd help me get power in the Hellfire Club... What kind of ability? None of my other abilities have gotten me far.. Master Thief? Big deal. I can draw, but that doesn't matter.. I'm smart, but there are a lot of people smarter than me... I'm a good fighter, but so is most everybody around here... What the hell was that woman talking about?"
{{Hmmm... maybe it's an ability you've never even THOUGHT of having... Common sense, good judgement, patience--oh I could go on and on...}}
"You aren't helping... I need to talk to somebody who's smart about that kind of thing.. Somebody who already has power in the Hellfire Club... I gotta figure out a way to make up for my loss... But who could I talk to? I don't think I wanna tell everybody I lost The Crow powers yet.. maybe if they don't know, they won't notice for a while... Let's see.. Khalid's pretty smart, but hardly anybody respects him, even if he is a cool guy... I could ask Dark Claw, since he's my best friend, but I'm sure he'd just tell me that I'd feel better if he flashed me or somethin'... Super Grover's too powerful.. he'd never be able to sympathize....maybe I could ask Blackfire.. she's not super-duper powerful, not in a physical sense, but she's definitely respected... I dunno... I just need to figure out SOMETHING... Like when are these new powers supposed to kick in? I turn 17 in a few days... I mean, don't mutant powers usually kick in during puberty? I'm way past that phase...."
{{Hell if I know... But I do know that you haven't stopped yawning since you woke up... You look exahusted... Go back to bed and we'll figure this out when you wake up again, okay?}}
Rhiannon nodded. "What would I do without you?" she mumbled before turning over and snuggling against George, who had slept through the entire thing.
Phantom padded closer to Rhiannon, kneaded the blankets a few times, then curled up by her stomach and closed his eyes. Whatever Rhiannon had to go through next, he would be there with her, just as he always had been. Besides, whatever was going to happen could wait until morning... and breakfast.
*OUTBURST*
STILL The Girl You Want
Teamless, Positionless
Mufasa's #1 Fan
"Karate isn't effective unless it's accompanied by yelling." ~Catwoman (in the old 1967 Batman and Robin serials)