The X-Project

Topaz is dragged out of hiding - and everything goes horribly wrong.



Happyjoyfrustrationcontentmentconcern…

Everything was assaulting Topaz's mind all at once. She was currently balled up in the corner of the unused classroom she'd taken residence in for the last few days, her eyes squeezed shut for a moment as she tried desperately to find peace - even distance and walls weren't working. She tried to relax, refocusing on her journal, currently open to a blank page and resting against her knees. She was fine. She was fine.

She was fine.

The mansion was a lot bigger than people normally gave it credit for, the school actually only ended up using a fraction of the available rooms. Scott used to explore the school when he was younger, but he'd fallen out of the habit as he had grown up. Now as he wandered through the halls searching for Topaz the memories started coming back to him, reminding him of all the times he'd wandered around the mansion just to get away from the others as he was growing up, much as Topaz was now. "Topaz, you in here?" he called pushing open the door to another one of the unused classrooms.

Her eyes snapped up, widening. Nonononononono. Mr. Summers' emotions weren't muted the way Matt's were - she got the full blast of them as the man walked into the room. She curled up a bit tighter on herself, quickly looking back at her journal. There were words on the page now.

The sound of cloth scrunching up in the corner attracted Scott's attention to the figure curled up on itself as if trying to hide from the world outside. Stepping through the door Scott turned a concerned look on the young girl, "Are you ok?" he asked keeping his distance. Something about the way Topaz was acting set a warning alarm off in Scott's head, he'd seen this kind of behavior before in recently manifested psychics.

"Fine." It was such an instant response, she didn't even think about it. She didn't want to talk about too much, she'd made that mistake with Matt and he'd thought she was on drugs. She just needed to get Mr. Summers to go away and she'd be all right.

Scott arched an eyebrow at that, "You're curled up in a ball on the floor of an unused classroom," he pointed out. "That's hardly what I'd call fine." Staying by the door Scott squatted down while looking at Topaz, "To an unbiased observer it kinda looks like you're trying to hide away here," he informed the teenager.

Couldn't he just leave her alone? What did it matter if she was curled up in an unused classroom? To most that would be a signal that she just wanted to be left alone. "Just sitting." Her voice was tight. She had no idea how she was going to convince him she was okay. Maybe he'd just give up. That'd be nice.

"And writing in the dark," Scott added with a nod towards her journal. "You know it's bad for your eyes right?" he pointed out trying to keep the conversation on the mundane everyday topics to keep Topaz comfortable. Standing up Scott walked over to the wall and flicked on the light before he turned to look over at the teenager, "So what are you really doing here then?"

She winced as the lights flicked on, blinking a couple of times as her eyes struggled to adjust. "What does it matter?" She managed to mutter after a minute. Who cared if she was sitting in the dark in an unused classroom?

"It matters a lot to me," Scott pointed out equitably. "I don't want to see you hiding away in here, from your problems or from other people. That's not really healthy, and I think you know that."

It was getting harder to think of an argument. Go away, go away, go away. She just wanted to be left alone. Why couldn't they leave her alone? Topaz unconsciously curled up a bit more, desperate to get away.

Scott watched the girl curl up even tighter as if she could block out the rest of the world by ignoring it. Scott knew exactly how she felt, he'd been through the same thing in the past. "The floor can't be the most comfortable place for you to lie down," he said proposing a compromise. "Why don't we find somewhere a little more comfortable where you can be alone too?" he proposed.

But it wasn't just being alone. It was being away. The unused wings were set off away from the rest of the mansion, putting distance between her and everyone else. She needed that.

But if it got Mr. Summers to leave her alone...

"Where?" Her voice was small and slightly wavering.

Scott took a moment to consider that. "How about the medlab? People never go down there unless they have to and it's pretty well separated from the rest of the mansion so you should be left alone unless you want to talk to someone."

But the doctors were down there, weren't they? And the assistants? There were still people. And she didn't need to be in the med lab, she was fine. Something twinged in Topaz's head and she closed her eyes, swallowing hard. Her head was killing her.

Scott started forward in alarm as Topaz closed her eyes. "Topaz, what's wrong? Are you feeling alright?" he asked tensely, his concern evident on his face.

"Fine," Topaz said at once, her eyes snapping open again. "Just a headache." It was possibly the first honest thing she'd said in this entire conversation, and even that was only half honest.

Scott looked at her skeptically but held his peace unwilling to push it, he'd just mention it to Jean so she could keep an eye on Topaz, the girl was trying to hard to maintain her facade now. "Well then shall we?" he asked nodding at the door.

Did she have a choice? Topaz reached for her bag with shaking hands, shoving her journal into her bag and forcing herself off the ground with a tense nod.

After three days of an empty library, Frank wasn't so much worried about Topaz any more as frantic. Images danced in his head of her lying in a pool of her own blood somewhere. He'd tried to respect her privacy for a while, but even the most stubborn of resolve cracks eventually- now Frank was stalking around the mansion, desperately trying to find her. After her room had turned up as a dead end, he'd ended up in the disused wing. "Topaz?" he called, as he darted down the corridor. "Topaz, you there?"

Then he saw her, walking with Mr. Summers and barely standing up. And his whole head was swamped in fear. "Topaz!"

Confusionangerboredomhappysadcontentworry-

Everything, everything in her head, all at the same time, and the addition of Frank and his worry, his overwhelming fear, all right there in front of her only made everything worse. No walls, no shields, nowhere to hide, she was trapped, stuck, it hurt, make it stop, make it stop, make it stop!

Every thought process ground to a halt as one wonderful realization pronounced itself, made itself known above all others.

She could.

When Frank remembered that moment later, he'd never quite pinpoint the moment when he realised something was wrong. It . wasn't even painful, exactly. More a slow, cold numbness that spread through him like a rising tide, smothering his fear and worry and panic and everything else. He'd never remember sinking to his knees, either. All he would recall was a single spark of panic, before Topaz blotted it out of him. Then there was nothing.

Nothing at all.

Scott's eye's widened in alarm as he felt something pulling at his mind with a raw urgency trying to pull him towards a sweet oblivion. Struggling to maintain his psychic defences Scott found his eye's being drawn to the girl at his side. "Topaz, what're you doing?"

She didn't see Frank go down, didn't hear Scott.

For one, entirely too short moment she was at complete peace. One by one the emotions of the people around her blinked out, and it was completely silent in her head.

And then it wasn't.

The emotions weren't just beating against her mind anymore, they were in her head. Everything, all at once, there, overwhelmingly there, fear and happiness and sadness and anger and worry and content and anxiety and no, no, nononononononono!

Topaz staggered back, away from Scott and Frank, fingers clutching at her head as she tried desperately to find some sense of order in the chaos. But it was too much, all too much. A small whimper slipped off her lips, and finally her mind did the only thing it could to save her sanity.

It shut her down.

Reflexively Scott reached out and grabbed Topaz as she crumpled, cushioning the girl's fall to stop her from hitting her head as she fell. "Topaz, Frank," Scott looked back and forth between the two teenagers before reaching for his phone and hit the quick-dial for the medbay, "Hey it's Scott, we have a problem."