TIME & TIED: DESTRUCTION

ARC 3.2 - With The Group

PART 56a: TONE DOWN 1

"Carrie. Carrie!”

She began to turn at the sound of her name, yet was not fast enough to avoid being blindsided by the fast moving splash of colour that was Chartreuse.

"Carrie,” the pink haired girl repeated desperately, grabbing onto Carrie’s arm to keep her from falling over. "Thank goodness I spotted you. Listen, Corry doesn't, like, believe me when I say someone's out to kill him. We’ve got to use your powers so we can, you know, stop this terrible thing from happening.”

Carrie coughed. "Ahem. My what? What are you saying, Chartreuse?" she asked, inclining her head towards the person standing next to her.

Chartreuse turned to look at Carrie's red-headed companion. "Oh, hi Glen. Uhmmmm, I need to use Carrie's powers of persuasion. Mind if I borrow your date for a little while?"

"Chartreuuuuuuse..."

Glen laughed. "It's okay Carrie, I don't mind. I could use a dance break, and was planning on watching Corry's performance anyway. You go tend to the serious matters your friend is referring to."

"I'm sure they're not that serious," Carrie protested. It didn’t matter - Chartreuse had already muttered a quick thanks and was pushing her towards the hallway.

Sighing, Carrie allowed herself to be led into the nearest unlocked classroom before confronting the pink haired girl.

“REALLY, Chartreuse?” Carrie said irritably. "What is so important that you felt it necessary to pull me away from the first truly enjoyable date I've had in months?"

"It’s like I said. I sensed something when I was with Laurie earlier, but it didn’t, like, hit me until I touched Corry’s hand," Chartreuse explained in a rush. "It was one of my, you know, wham bang powerful impressions that told me he'd be dead before the night was out. And I bet it's somehow related to the musical sets he's gonna do!”

She leaned in. “But I can't see more than that without meditating, and I never know how long it’ll take to pick up something, whereas Corry’s starting in less than five minutes. So since you're so much more powerful than me, you could look ahead--"

"Whoa, STOP,” Carrie interrupted. “Dial that back. I’m at a dance here. With Glen. This is NOT temporal session time. And even if it WERE, we’d started to work on mental shielding, not running up and down my timeline. Think about it, I still have no idea whether something from the future will become fixed as soon as I see it. What if I see something horrible, and then we can’t change it?”

"But we have to do something,” Chartreuse insisted. "Please, Carrie, can't you at least help me work out the cause? Or get a list of suspects? Or a time frame? Something?? I swear, I'm not overdramatizing here. Well, okay, so Corry may not DIE, but I know Laurie’s brother will get badly hurt - unless we do something.”

Carrie groaned and pressed a couple fingers to her forehead. She contemplated Chartreuse's request, the pleading look on her friend’s face, and in particular, how the two of them would feel should something disastrous actually happen to Corry now.

"Okay. Okay! I'll try a few tiny image jumps forward," Carrie yielded. "But you leave me and Glen alone for the rest of the night after this, understood?”

"Of course. Unless your help is needed again,” Chartreuse said brightly. Carrie opened her mouth to protest, but then decided it probably wouldn't do any good. She simply sighed as she sat, cross legged on the floor of the classroom, and closed her eyes.

***

‘Thank goodness,’ Chartreuse thought, going down on her knees in front of the seated blonde. ‘We can fix this, I know we can! Still, I gotta take it easy on her...’

“All right, Carrie," Chartreuse began, grasping the blonde by the hands. "I realize we're not at my place with the crystals, but try to relax and--"

"I'm there," Carrie murmured, eyes closed. "In the time stream."

Chartreuse resisted the urge to flinch. ‘Damn, that was fast. I can see why it worries her.' "Er, okay," she continued. "See if you can centre in on Corry? Visualize that he's standing there in front of you."

Carrie nodded. "It's not difficult, I’ve mentioned former time travellers are always a bit out of synch. He's... yes, I've got it. He's out in the cafeteria. They’re making preparations for their first number."

"Do you sense any danger?"

"I don't think so?" Carrie muttered. "The crowd is chattering, talking about his chances. I don’t know if I want to wade into it, my astral self has ended up back by the coat check. Oh, wait, Joe Drew is scowling at me! No, wait, it's through me - towards the stage. Towards Corry."

"Don't forget, spirit body. Totally insubstantial, no one can see or do anything to you.”

"I know, I know. It troubles me, that's all. Do you think I ended up back here because Joe’s planned something?”

“Maybe. Or maybe it was a subconscious attempt to avoid the crowd.” Chartreuse tightened her grip slightly. She had rather hoped to be able to sense something through Carrie, but so far, there was nothing.

Was that because there was nothing to sense? Or because it didn’t work that way? How else could they interface? Her gaze started to wander, and she pulled it back to Carrie’s face.

“Okay, Corry’s announcing the first song. Now what?"

Chartreuse sighed. They needed more. “Are you up to trying a skip into the future? To establish a time frame? Please be honest. My attitude aside, I don't want to push you beyond what you can, you know, handle."

Carrie bit down on her lower lip. "I don't know," she admitted after a moment's thought. “After all, I don’t want to physically time travel. Only project. But maybe if I simply imagine that I’m stretching forwards, moving faster than the water currents?"

***

Julie allowed Clarke to lead her towards the cafeteria. "No deafening, pulsating beat," the tall boy said to her, as he tugged at his necktie. “Guess we’ve arrived just in time for Corry's bit."

"Um," was all Julie could think to reply. After numerous wardrobe changes, she had finally selected a low key shirt and sweater ensemble with a long skirt. As they entered the cafeteria, only a couple of people picked up on her presence; Corry's imminent performance was helping to divert attention.

'Interesting,' Julie mused. 'A year ago, this sort of neglect would have infuriated me. Now I'm simply relieved.'

As the quartet of students started to play up by the stage, Clarke guided her back against the wall. "They're quite good," he reflected. "Tim's looking a little out of sorts though. I hope Corry's been treating him decently."

"Clarke,” came a hushed cry. Both Clarke and Julie turned as the younger Veniti twin ran up, dressed like a red candle. "Clarke, we need your help. Chartreuse thinks Corry's life is in danger!"

Clarke blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Chartreuse got this feeling that Corry was going to die or get hurt," Laurie explained. "And she thought Carrie could help and so went to find her but now they’ve both disappeared and so you're tall maybe you can see them since I'm not sure what's going to happen any more and I'm so worried for my brother and by the way that's a lovely tie you're wearing and golly it's such a pity that I'm not seeing it under better circumstances..."

The redhead was obviously distressed, Julie realized. She normally did a better job of controlling her run-on sentences these days, particularly in front of Clarke. The guy she’d once liked. Or still liked? Julie didn’t like to reflect on that too much.

"Whoa, okay Laurie, calm down," Clarke was saying. "You're saying you need to find Chartreuse and Carrie?" Laurie nodded wordlessly, eyes wide and full of concern. Clarke turned his attention to Julie. "Jewels, will you be okay here for a couple minutes while I try to track down Laurie's friends?”

Julie nodded. "It's fine, Phil, no one's paying attention to me. And if someone tries to start something, I’ll simply go back outside.”

Clarke looked at her for another moment before returning her nod. "Okay. Now, Laurie, given Chartreuse’s preference for coloured outfits, I’m pretty sure I could spot her if she were in here," he said. "Maybe she went to the washroom, or out for a breath of air? What was she wearing?”

Julie watched the two of them depart the cafeteria, then shrank back against the wall.

***

"Breathe, Carrie, breathe,” Chartreuse shouted desperately. "You're not really drowning. Focus back in on Corry. Focus!"

Carrie sucked in a great, heaving breath, her fingernails digging into Chartreuse's palms. The pink haired girl ignored the pain, all of her attention on the blonde cheerleader twitching in front of her.

"Okay Carrie, never mind Corry," Chartreuse decided. "Come back to me, all right? Focus on me. On the present." The fear that she was losing her friend was starting to tug at her heart.

Carrie didn't reply, the twitching ceasing as her eyes snapped wide open. At least those eyes were blue, Chartreuse noted, and not golden. But they were focussed on nothing.

“Okay, bad idea, I'm sorry for pushing you into it,” the mystic continued, trying to suppress her rising panic. "I wasn't, like, thinking straight. We can simply look into the usual suspects here, yeah? So come on, come back to me now, PLEASE Carrie."

"Char... treuse...?"

Chartreuse felt the tightness in her chest release. “Carrie! Carrie, are you all right?"

"Am... fine," Carrie murmured. "It's... whoa, headrush."

Carrie's grip relaxed enough to allow Chartreuse to pull one of her hands away. She waved it in front of Carrie's eyes. There was no reaction. "Carrie, what's going on? Where are you?"

“In future," Carrie murmured. “Astral me. About ten... no, five minutes. Had to resist the pull to bring all of me. Th-Thank you for anchoring me in the present, Chartreuse.”

“No prob - are you SURE you’re okay?” Chartreuse knew her own heartbeat was still racing.

"Well, I'm... reorienting.” Carrie’s vacant eyes drifted closed once more.

“Okay, Corry's still performing. New song. I’m closer to him this time, near the front. Tommy is elbowing his way up here through the crowd. He's going to throw something! But... it's a tomato. That's not life threatening. Maybe there's something else. Oh, Joe!"

Carrie's head whipped to the side. “Yes, Joe has left the coat check and he's heading towards Corry. No, wait, towards Julie. She’s edging away from him, so they’re both headed towards Corry. Damn.”

Carrie mouth twitched. "Too many people, Chartreuse. Too many, I don’t know so many of them, I’m not in the present, everything's a jumble..."

“Stay calm," Chartreuse soothed. Should they abort? “You’re only there for Corry. What’s, like, happening to him?”

"Corry," Carrie murmured. "He's singing. He's... wait, Tim's jumping up. He's shoved his keyboard at Corry. Ow, audio feedback... something sparked! The crowd is reacting... Corry’s on the floor? Someone’s on top of him, everyone’s staring, Glen is up here too, it’s becoming a jumble, and Glen’s staring at me, are we sure I’m still-- OH!"

"What?" Chartreuse asked, gripping both of Carrie's hands again as the blonde cried out.

"Where the hell am I? Who’s this girl in red?" Carrie choked out. “Chartreuse, I'm in the wrong time again!"

"Okay, Carrie, come back, time to come back," Chartreuse declared. “Session over, we know enough, you have to return to the present.”

“Piercing hazel eyes... this girl's raising her hand, she's..."

"Carrie, ohmigod, don’t let the forces take you. CARRIE!"