Michelle Morgan: All right. So, last night, Sam goes to go to sleep. Her eyelids get heavy, and she starts to slowly drift away. And then...she sees brightness behind the lids of her eyes, and they eyes open, almost of their own accord. She finds herself staring at a stark white paneled ceiling, with a crack in it.

Samantha Jacobs: Eyes squint and she shifts. Crack? Where had she seen... no. The hospital? Arms try to lift, is she tied down?

Michelle Morgan: No, no being tied down for her. She's unrestrained, unless you want to count the cheap white bedding material covering her.

Samantha Jacobs: Hands feel over arms, and chest, eyes darting around. Had that all been a dream? Or was this the dream? She slowly starts to try and sit up, eyes darting around still

Michelle Morgan: Looking around reveals the hospital room, in all it's glory. As she feels over her body, she finds herself, amazingly, whole. No major wounds, not even any scarring. It looks as if the bomb, wasn't nearly as severe as she had thought. There's wounds, sure, but miraculously, she seems to be okay.

Samantha Jacobs: Her breathing gets shaky, fingers runing over her chest, and up her shirt to check. It had all been a bad dream. A terrible bad dream. Evan. Where was Evan, and the nurses? Could she go home now?

Michelle Morgan: In the distance, Sam hears music playing...it's faint, difficult to make out, possibly coming from another room. Before she can really focus on it, the door opens, and a nurse happens to come in. She's about 5'7", maybe 115 pounds or so, honey blonde hair put up, bright green eyes. Her resemblance to Michelle is quite striking. She smiles when she sees Sam sitting up. "Ahh, we're up and around, I see. How are you feeling?"

Samantha Jacobs: She looks at her, confused a minute. Staring, before she blurts out. "What's your name? Where am I? Where are my comrades?"

Michelle Morgan: She frowns a little. "I'm Nurse Randelle. You're in a hospital. Your platoon was injured by an explosive device...do you remember?" She walks around to face her, doing a quick once-over.

Samantha Jacobs: ".... Randelle?" It sounds puzzled. Did she somehow put this nurse into her dreams? "Yes... yes, where are they? Where's my brother? Cam I see them? Did they survive?"

Michelle Morgan: "Everyone's fine, yes." She does a few checks on Sam, pulling the flashlight out for the eye test, all that fun, as she talks. "I must say...you all were quite lucky. I've never seen so many people escape with so few injuries from such an incident."

Samantha Jacobs: She slumps back on the bed, blinking almost dumbly at the nurse. It had beem a dream. Abbey, and Isha, and Rachelle, and Michelle... she's not sure whether to be eleated, or devastated. "I want to see them. Can I see them?"

Michelle Morgan: "As soon as the doctor says it's okay," she says with that practiced ease. She takes Sam's pulse, and as she does, Sam has a twinge of...something. Pain, almost, but not quite, under her skull, right behind her left ear. ((Roll WP))

Samantha Jacobs: ((Sam: 7,2,4,2,6,))

Samantha Jacobs: Her head jerks slightly to the left, a frown on her face at the strange feeling. Her free hand lifts, as if to go check behind her ear, maybe shrapnel?

Michelle Morgan: For just a moment, it becomes just a a little bit harder to remember everyone from New York, as if they all have just gained a point of Arcane. They come back to her, though, and the pain remains, lingering there like a hint of a headache that won't go away. Nurse Randelle looks up from the watch she's using to count the pulse to gaze at Sam, eyebrow raised. "Are you all right?"

Samantha Jacobs: She frowns, heavily. Those are faces she can' forget. She doesn't want to forget them. She touches behind her ear, carefully prodding. "It hurts, back here."

Michelle Morgan: The nurse looks at her, and smiles. It's almost unnerving, how much even her smile looks like Michelle's. "That's perfectly natural. Just let it go, and it'll all feel better." She stands up and sighs a bit. "I have to go make some rounds, but I'll be back. In the meantime, it's very important that you stay in this room. Don't go anywhere...it could be disastrous. Someone will be here for you soon."'

Samantha Jacobs: "Why is it natural for it to be hurt? Let go.. let go of what? What can't I leave the room?" Oh god. The Union. Did the union get her? Shit!

Michelle Morgan: She frowns disapprovingly at Sam's sudden barrage of questions, and for a moment, it's almost like the memory of Michelle herself the one who's reproaching Sam. "Relax, Corporal. You're perfectly fine, now. Just calm down and relax. You've been through a lot, and you likely have a little post-traumatic stress disorder. Everything will be fine." She smiles a bit, then moves to the door, opening it and stepping through. The door swings shut behind her, doorknob clicking into place.

Samantha Jacobs: "... you didn't answer a single one of my questions, bitch." She narrows eyes at the door, nervous. She's not sure why leaving the room would be disastourus. She glances around, fidgeting, and then slides to get out of the bed.

Michelle Morgan: The room is your fairly typical hospital room. A window along one wall, Television, off, in the top corner of the room, near the window. A few pieces of monitoring equpiment, a door ahead, presumably off to the bathroom. And the door outside.

Samantha Jacobs: She glances out the window first, frowning. Restless. Something is wrong. She burns pictures of people into her memory.

Michelle Morgan: ((Gimme another WP roll))

Samantha Jacobs: ((Sam: 2,6,7,10,8,))

Michelle Morgan: The pain flares up behind her right ear as she tries to focus, to force herself not to forget about the people from New York. Sam focuses through the pain, though, and though it stays there, a dull ache, she's fairly sure that she's got them locked in. As she looks out the window, she sees she's fairly high up, on one of the higher floors of the hospital. She's looking down onto a plaza, where there appears to be a pitched firefight between Iraqi and American forces, almost to the front of the hospital building. In the background, past the front lines of the Iraqi forces, Sam can see what looks like some American military commanders on their knees, prisoners, about to be executed.

Samantha Jacobs: She groans at the point, but tears to the door. Those are her people, her allies, her friends. No wonder the nurse didn't want her to leave. But she won't let them die. She can't let them die. What if it's her platoon out there, or her brother? She skids, almost into the door, and yanks it open.

Samantha Jacobs: ((groans at the PAIN))

Michelle Morgan: As the door open, she finds herself in....the hospital of the hallway. The enitre place is almost surreal... everyone here reminds her of someone fromo New York. There's a doctor that looks EXACTLY like Isha, only with dark brown hair, instead of white. He's talking to a nurse that is the spitting image of Rachelle, but for the limp. "Arlett," who's a patient, is getting a drink from the fountain. And so on. Meanwhile, she hears that song again, reasserting itself...a little easier to make out, now. The song is "Save Me" by Aimee Mann:

Michelle Morgan: ((Do you know the song, or do you need a link to lyrics?))

Samantha Jacobs: (( Looked it up.)) She looks disturbed now, uneasy. This is wrong, all wrong. The song makes her feel paranoid, remembering how despertalye she wanted to save Michelle from Robert. And why are they all just standing und here? The fight is downstairs, men are dying! She stares at the lookalikes, and then tears down the hallway.

Michelle Morgan: She makes her way down the hallway, passing by Nurse Randelle, who gives her a disparaging look, as if to say, 'This is your fault, now.' Sam makes her way running down the hallway, past a receptionist who looks disturbingly like Jody Yu, and tears out the front door, finding herself on the aftermath of the battlefield. It's been a slaughter, and the Iraqi forces have won. They still have yet to execute the commanders...it appears, from the look of it, that they were forcing the commanders to watch as their troops were destroyed.

Samantha Jacobs: She sneers at the nurse. That's not Michelle. This is all wrong. This is so wrong. She slides on blood and stares at the aftermath. One lone soldier, laughingly, a woman in a hospital gown. Why is no one HELPING them? WHY?! There is a sound from her throat, wrong, upset. Why did she never learn how to use magic? Could she even use it? She reaches down, snatching a gun. She wanted to go back. The dream was better than this reality. Wasn't it?

Michelle Morgan: ((Roll me a Per+Alert))

Samantha Jacobs: ((I just lost the whole convo *sighs* Did you get my roll?))

Michelle Morgan: ((Phone call...BRB. And no, I didn't...repost the roll. I'll send you a log of the whole convo when we're done))

Samantha Jacobs: ((Its much appreciated Sam: 7,6,8,3,7,3,7,))

Michelle Morgan: ((Sorry, my mom came back to pick up our laundry and do it for us. :) ))

Samantha Jacobs: ((No problem ^__^))

Michelle Morgan: As Sam surveys the field, she sees, to her horror, that the mangled, torn, bullet-riddled bodies are those of the mages of New York. Ishachus, Travis, Arlett, Terry, Tessa, Roxy, David, Abbey, Cori, Dragana, Jim, Jody, Jeff, Matt, Joey, Rene, Snyde, Adriana, Tansy...all of them and more, mages she's known who are gone now, and other residents of New York, like Larry, William, Elijah, Ita, and so on...everyone that Sam knows from New York is on the field, in military gear, cut to pieces. And when she sees the line of commanders, waiting to be executed, a little better, she recognizes them as Kelton, Rachelle, Michael Thompson, Johnny, Marty (if she's met him, otherwise he's not there), and Michelle.

Samantha Jacobs: The gun slips from her hand as eyes fully survery the carnage. This was a nightmare. A horrible horrible nightmare. She could scarecely breath, staggering through the bodies. It was the technocracy. She had been right.They were going to execute the deacons. They were going to execute Michelle and Rachelle. They'd killed so many it was wrong, all wrong. There was a violent choking sound from her, before she screamed. Rage overtaking logic. She reches down and reclaims a gun and starts to run towards where teh Deacons, where the commanders, are. Lifting the gun. She'll save them. She will. She HAS to.

Michelle Morgan: ((WP roll))

Samantha Jacobs: ((Sam: 5,3,3,2,7,))

Michelle Morgan: She tries to run as quick as she can...by the time she gets within firing range, they've already begun. Instead of a quick execution by bullets, they're using the more traditional version, as the two executioners, with black hoods on their heads, hack away with machetes, intending to decapitate and starting with Kelton and Marty. The strangled screams of the two Deacons are cut off midway through, and soon, the heads join them, hitting the ground as the bodies slump over soon after. Sam gets within range to fire as the executioners move behind Michael and Johnny and raise bloody machetes high into the air.

Samantha Jacobs: She raises the gun, she she fires. Anger and hate consuming as she screams violently. Teeth gritting, tears streaming from her eyes, blood staning her clothes, her feet, her.

Michelle Morgan: As the gun raises, and just before she can pull the trigger, she takes a step forward, and steps on something, slightly raised. A pressure plate. There's an instant of horrid, crystal-clear realization before the mine she's stepped on detonates, sending her flying backwards, gun falling out of numb fingers and arching off to the side. She hits the ground a good 15 feet back from where she was, and suddenly, she's back to her true condition...scarred, missing a lung, out of breathe. The pain is utterly excruciating, and try as she might, she can't do anything much more then lie there, head turned to face the executions, as the former Deacons of Haven are slowly, brutally, and very awkwardly decapitated by the executioners, two more strangled screams cut off midway through.

Samantha Jacobs: She gags violently, spitting up blood and twitching as she chokes. Blood fills her mouth and she tries to turn her head, to stop the blood from filling her mouth as she tries to breath, fingers and limbs staying still despite her effort. Wide, impossible eyes watch the executions in horror, unable to turn away, despite how much she wants to. Her mouth moves, lips forming the words even as she can't talk. Blood spills out as she cries, repeating all their names, that she's sorry, and Michelle's. Over. And over. And over. Trying to get up.

Michelle Morgan: The executioners flick the machetes out to the side, to get some of the blood off, and move behind Rachelle and Michelle. As they raise the blades into the air, Michelle locks eyes with Sam, and smiles a little bit. Her mouth is moving, and despite the fact that no one else can seem to hear it, the song comes up again, and Sam has no doubt that it's coming from Michelle. Despite the obvious implications of the words, she gets the unmistakable feeling that it's not a request that the woman is singing, to save her...it's an offer. To save Samantha, the woman she loves. She hears the words resonate in her mind as well as in her ears. It's almost consuming, the noise coming from everywhere, all at once, in Michelle's voice, calling out to Samantha.

Samantha Jacobs: There is a sob filled with blood, a burst, the liquid sliding down her mouth. A hand tries to reach out, desperately, to do SOMETHING, to make it all go away. She repeats Michelle's name over and over, again, 'no' so many jumbled words as she desperately tries to stop something she has no control over. The words I love you spill forth as she tries to move, as eyes remain rivited on Michelle. She could stand to die, she could die... but Michelle. She couldn't live without Michelle.

Michelle Morgan: There's a look of deep sadness in Michelle's eyes, and a look of near resignation, though the words of the song continue. Sam feels Michelle reach out with her mind, connecting with Sam's, if only for the briefest instant. In that space of time, she feels Michelle, quite literally, pass her magic onto Sam, draining her own self dry of Quintessence and Prime energy onto Sam, as well as, somehow, all knowledges of her Spheres. In this moment, Sam is also healed, brought standing, and able to act. Michelle's body slumps visibly as the effect fades, unable to maintain it, as she no longer has the magic to do so.

Samantha Jacobs: She hurls herself up, she snatches a gone, she tries to move. She brings up the gun to shoot, trying to stop them from killing her by any means. They can't, they can't, she has to stop them, this is all wrong. Michelle can't die, she has to save her, reaching out, rrying to show Michelle how much she loves her, trying to give her hope, SOMETHING to stop it all.

Michelle Morgan: ((Another WP roll))

Samantha Jacobs: ((Sam: 9,8,7,7,9,))

Michelle Morgan: ((Good time to succeed brilliantly. *G*))

Michelle Morgan: And with an amazing series of shots, Sam takes down, with perfect precision, the two executioners, as well as the three guards nearby. Their bodies fall and twitch, machetes falling out of lifeless hands and hitting the ground.

Samantha Jacobs: She scrabbles, dropping the gun, ttripping, and rushing to Michelle and Rachelle. She unties them, clutching to Michelle, desperately. Stroking her hair, babbling her name and apologies, trying to explain it to her, over and over again, shaking, sick. Trying to give the power back to Michelle. ttying to make it all right, a hand cklutching Rachelle as well.

Michelle Morgan: Michelle looks up to Sam, smiling gently, despite the exhausted, drained look on her face, in her posture, resonating through her entire being, and pulls her down into a soft, loving kiss.

Samantha Jacobs: She's still crying, desperately. Trying to hold onto that feeling. It's not right. Kissing Michelle, holding her tightly. "I love you, I'm so sorry, I love. God Michelle, I love you...."

Michelle Morgan: In one of those moments of realization, Sam finds them in their apartment, in the bedroom. The rosary and the jar lie on the floor...it's exactly as it looked when Michelle was taken. Michelle pulls away and looks up to Sam, smiling, a little sadly. "I love you, too, Samantha."

Samantha Jacobs: She can't stop crying.She just can't. "I promise. I'll find you, I'll get you,god, I promise Michelle, I promise. I'm sorry Michelle, I'm so sorry, I'll find you, I promise." Fingers cling tightly to her, unwilling to let go

Michelle Morgan: "It's okay, Samantha." A slight shake of her head. "It's not your fault. Don't let yourself be fooled into thinking it is." She looks over her shoulder, to the door, a tension coming to her frame.

Samantha Jacobs: Holding her, tighter, a noise more like an animal, as bloodshot angry eyes slip to the door, refusing to let go of Michelle. "I'll get you, I promise. I'll find you, and I'll kill him, and it will be okay. I promise Michelle, I love you. I promise."

Michelle Morgan: There's no one at the door, yet. Michelle takes Sam by the arms, pulling away enough to look her in the face. "Samantha...there isn't much time. You have to listen to me, and listen carefully, okay?"

Samantha Jacobs: "Okay." She swallows, focusing through the tears. "I promise Michelle..."

Michelle Morgan: "I know. Now. Robert isn't planning to kill me...not immediately, at least. He's trying to convert me. He thinks that I'm Naomi...Tansy's mother. I think he...was in the mindscape that I took Tansy into. I think that's how he found us." Pursed lips, and she looks over her shoulder again, then back to Sam. "I think I can buy you guys time."

Samantha Jacobs: "Don't Michelle. Don't do anyrthing stupid. Please." Begging, holding her tighter. "We're coming, I've gathered everyone I can, we're coming. I promise Michelle." Jaw twitching, trying not to cry anymore

Michelle Morgan: "I'm not going to do anything stupid, Samantha. I just have to lead him on a little bit." A pause. "Don't trust magic. Rely on what you know. Remember the Code of Ananda. Truths foreseen are not always truths. Take your time, think things through. You're a leader, Samantha. Lead. You can do this. I love you."

Samantha Jacobs: Fingers run through her hair again, eyes squinting up as she starts to cry again. "I love you too Michelle, I promise... I promise, I'll find you... I promise." Fingers twist in fabric, not wanting to let go. "I love you..."

Michelle Morgan: "I love you too. Now go. Please, go, before he comes here and finds you, and realizes that I'm doing this." She pulls Sam down into a long, passionate kiss, and then releases her.

Samantha Jacobs: She holds her rtightly, enough that it has to hurt as she kisses her, hard. A sob, nuzzling her, before finally unfists her hands... and let's go of her.

Michelle Morgan: ((Roll WP to wake up))

Samantha Jacobs: ((Sam: 9,7,8,3,6,))

Michelle Morgan: Just as the bedroom doorknob shakes and starts to swing open, Sam wakes up.

Samantha Jacobs: She can't help the broken sobbing. She can't. The sobbing painful and heart rending and breaking. Stumbling out of bed, and into the bathroom... to hide.

Michelle Morgan: She does, however, feel within her mind, Michelle's liberating resonance, staying with her. The feeling doesn't fade for the entire day.

Samantha Jacobs: Some small comfort.

Michelle Morgan: Yep.

Samantha Jacobs: Damn.